• Centre for Civilisational Dialogue (UMCCD)
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Name                           : Prof Dr Ravindra Kumar
Institution                   : University Meerut, India
Date of Visit(s)           : 9 – 14 January 2005
E-mail                         : ravindrakumar5@hotmail.com


Brief Biodata
Writer, Indologist and former Vice Chancellor of Meerut University, India, Dr. Ravindra Kumar has authored and edited over 100 works on great men like Buddha and Gandhi and on social-cultural issues. As a visiting professor, he has delivered lectures on Asian values, Gandhism, international understanding and peace in many countries. He is the editor of the Global Peace Journal and recipient of several awards like Ambassador of Peace, Sardar Patel Award and Padma Shri.

Name                           : Prof Dr Carl Ernst
Institution                   : University of North Carolina, USA
Date of Visit(s)           : 7 January – 31 May 2005
                                       10 – 31 October 2010
E-mail                         : cernst@email.unc.edu


Brief Biodata
Carl W. Ernst is a specialist in Islamic studies, with a focus on West and South Asia. His published research, based on the study of Arabic, Persian, and Urdu, has been mainly devoted to the study of Islam and Sufism. His book Following Muhammad: Rethinking Islam in the Contemporary World (UNC Press, 2003) has received several international awards, including the Bashrahil Prize for Outstanding Cultural Achievement (Cairo, 2004), and another of his books has been awarded the Farabi International Award in the Humanities and Islamic Studies by the Iranian Ministry of Science, Research, and Technology (2008). He has received research fellowships from the Fulbright program, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation. In 2009 he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His current research projects include a study of the Qur’an as literature, studies of Muslim interpreters of Indian religions, and a translation of the Arabic poetry of al-Hallaj. He is the co-editor (with Richard Martin) of Rethinking Islamic Studies: From Orientalism to Cosmopolitanism (University of South Carolina Press, 2010). His publications include Sufi Martyrs of Love: Chishti Sufism in South Asia and Beyond (co-authored with Bruce Lawrence, 2002); Teachings of Sufism(1999); a translation of The Unveiling of Secrets: Diary of a Sufi Master by Ruzbihan Baqli (1997);Guide to Sufism (1997); Ruzbihan Baqli: Mystical Experience and the Rhetoric of Sainthood in Persian Sufism (1996); Eternal Garden: Mysticism, History, and Politics at a South Asian Sufi Center(1993); and Words of Ecstasy in Sufism (1985).


He studied comparative religion at Stanford University (A.B. 1973) and Harvard University (Ph.D. 1981). He has taught at Pomona College (1981-1992) and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he has been department chair (1995-2000) and Zachary Smith Professor (2000-2005). He is now William R. Kenan, Jr., Distinguished Professor (2005- ) and Director of the Carolina Center for the Study of the Middle East and Muslim Civilizations. He and Bruce Lawrence are co-editors of the Islamic Civilization and Muslim Networks Series at the University of North Carolina Press.

Name                          : Dr Eric Winkel

Institution                   : Bridge Academy Charter School, Las Vegas, New Mexico

Date of Visit(s)           : 14 – 30 July 2005

                                       2 August 2007

E-mail                         : ericwinkel@ymail.com

Brief Biodata

Ph.D. in Government and International Studies from the University of South Carolina, he worked with IIIT in Herndon, Virginia and then at the International Islamic University Malaysia on ideas of Islamisation. He has taught at the University of New Mexico, Universidad del Valle de Mexico, at the Quaid-i-Azam University in Pakistan as a Senior Fulbright Scholar, and again recently at the National College of Arts in Lahore. His primary study for over twenty years is the Futuḥāt of Ibn ʿArabī. He has addressed the Muhyiddin Ibn ʿArabī Society in Berkeley, in Santa Barbara, as well as Oxford in 2008. Dr. Winkel has made great efforts to understand quantum mechanics and absorbed the fascination with chaos, fractals, and complexity emanating from Los Alamos and the Santa Fe Institute. He believes the greatly expanded interest in and study of Ibn ʿArabī corresponds to the last four decades of interest in complexity. From 2000–2008 Dr. Winkel co-founded a small public high school in rural New Mexico (USA) with grants from the U.S. Department of Education. His school introduced students to languages and cultures, culminating in a ‘global experience’ for a total of thirty-five students travelling to nine countries.

Name                          : Prof Dr Thomas William Simon

Institution                   : Illinois State University

Date of Visit(s)           : 15 August 2005 – 14 May 2006

E-mail                         : tsimon@hnc.nju.edu.ch

Brief Biodata

Prior to the Hopkins-Nanjing Center, Dr. Simon was associated with the Department of International Studies of the American University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates. Before that he taught philosophy and chaired the Department of Philosophy at Illinois State University. As a Fulbright Scholar, he taught in the University of Malaya Law Faculty and conducted research at the Centre for Civilization Dialogue. He has taught law at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia and the University of Prishtina, Kosovo. He held the Distinguished Chair of Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of Northern Colorado as well as helped to establish an English-speaking Japanese university, Miyazaki International College.

His awards include a Liberal Arts Fellowship from Harvard Law School. He has received awards for teaching excellence from the University of Florida and the University of Illinois.

He holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from Washington University and a J.D. in law from the University of Illinois.

His research focuses on global injustices and on minority issues. In addition to over forty articles, his publications include Group Injustices (2011), Laws of Genocide (2007), Law & Philosophy (2000), and Democracy and Social Injustice (1995). He founded and edited Injustice Studies, an electronic journal. He has consulted for the United Nations Working Group on Minorities and the American Bar Association Central/Eastern European Law Initiative. He served on a drafting committee for Albania’s new constitution. As a practicing attorney, he has represented a Diaspora Rwandan group in an extradition case to the Ad Hoc War Crimes Tribunal for Rwanda and has served locally as a Court Appointed Special Advocate for child abuse cases. He has been admitted to the practice of law in the District of Columbia, Illinois, and Maryland.

Last Update: 19/06/2020