Sikh Studies Graduate Program?

[Simran9]

I need advice about doing a masters or Ph.D in Sikh Studies. What do you think are the prospects for someone with that degree-- besides becoming a professor what other job opportunities might there be? Is there a need for people with this education?

What should I be looking for when I compare/contrast the different Sikh Studies graduate programs that are out there?

Is anyone here doing this by the way?

Tell me anything and everything that is relevent to this. I am just trying to research this out before I make a decision.

I'd appreciate any info, Thanks!

[pun9ab1]

I'm not sure but I have heard of a professor at University of California that has ph.d. in Sikhism. If you an contact him you'll be able to find out more about the subject.

[Harmeet_Singh]

Yes, There is such a person in California,

Gurinder Singh Mann, professor of Sikh studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara

Also Manvir Singh from the UK (Banbury) www.manvirsingh.blogspot.com is doing something similar here in the UK i think.

[Singh, Mahan]

Most of the Universities in the USA where the Sikh study programs are offered are staffed with professors from McLeodian thought (that Sikhism is not an Independent religion, but a sect within the larger Bhakti movement within Hinduism). Most of them are basically historians and their knowledge of Sikh theology is questionable. They have tried to to construct the Sikh theology from the history but the Sikh religion is a revealed religion and its theology comes from their not from the history. However two recent appointments to the Chairs of Sikhism at the Hofstra University and the University of Michigan in An Arbor are praiseworthy – Prof Balbinder Singh Bhogal, Ph.D. at the Hofstra University (New York), and Prof Arvind-Pal Singh Mandair at the University of Michigan. You may write to them and find out more about their programs. Also they should be helpful in answering the other questions that you have asked.

Prof. Mandair has two PhDs (I think) one from University of Aston and the second from University of Warwick in England)

And Here is a write up that I found on an other website about Prof. Bhogal

Prof. Bhogal, newly arrived from Toronto, Canada, is the second holder of the chair (which was established in September of 2000). The first was Sardar Arvind-Pal Singh Mandair, who has now gone on to the University of Michigan.

Dr. Bhogal was most recently an associate professor in South Asian religions and cultures, Division of Humanities, Faculty of Arts, at York University in Toronto.

He received his Ph.D. from London University, School of Oriental and African Studies, 2001, and his B.A. (Hons) from Lancaster University. He has served as a professor in departments of religion, philosophy and humanities in universities in England, the United States and Canada. Dr. Bhogal's interests include South Asian religions and cultures, specializing in Sikh Studies, particularly the philosophy and exegesis of the Guru Granth Sahib; hermeneutic and translation theory and its radicalization through deconstruction; the relationship and interaction between Indian and Western/Continental philosophies; the study of mysticism; and orientalist and postcolonial discourses.

He has authored two articles in the Routledge Journal called Sikh Formations: Religion, Culture, Theory: "Ghostly Disorientations: Translating the Adi Granth as the Guru Granth" (2006), and "Questioning Hermeneutics with Freud: How to Interpret Dreams and Mute-Speech in Sikh Scripture" (2005).

He has also published three chapters in the following books: "Text as Sword: Sikh Religious Violence Taken for Wonder", in King and Hinnells' edited volume, Religion and Violence in South Asia: Theory and Practice, (Routledge, 2006), "Cross-Cultural Dialogues with Western Fictions: 'There is no Hindu nor Muslim - nor Sikh'", in Hart's edited volume, Multifaith Britain: An Experiment in Worship, (O Books, 2002), and "On the Hermeneutics of Sikh Thought and Praxis", in Shackle, Singh and Mandair's edited volume, Sikh Religion, Culture and Ethnicity, (Curzon, 2001).

Dr. Bhogal has also engaged with public outreach, being invited to speak as an expert in South Asian religions. In this regard, he has served as a judge in the Art and Literature competition at Toronto's Fourth Annual Spinning Wheel Film Festival, and has made six television appearances as a guest on the "3D-Dialogue" TV-talkshow on the OMNI-TV Network in Canada.

Dr. Bhogal is scheduled to participate in "The Politics of Religion-Making" conference at Hofstra University, sponsored by the Hofstra Cultural Center and the Department of Religion, October 4, 5 and 6, 2007, and will also present "Questioning Secularism from the standpoint of Religion - Or, How to Encounter Cultural Difference" at the American Academy of Religion in San Diego, November 2007. He is currently working on two book projects reinterpreting Sikh scripture.

Prof. Arvind-Pal Singh Mandair

Born in the Hoshiarpur district of Punjab, at the age of three Arvind-pal Singh migrated to England with his parents in the mid 1960’s. He was educated at King Henry VIII, one of England’s oldest grammar schools, going on to study Applied Chemistry at Coventry University where he took a B.Sc. with First Class Honours, followed by graduate work at the University of Aston in Birmingham where he earned a PhD specializing in the application of magnetic resonance spectroscopy to the study of silicates. His early work was published in leading journals such as Polyhedron: International Journal of Inorganic and Organometallic Chemistry, and Inorganica Chimica Acta. During the late 80’s Dr. Mandair held posts with several multi-national companies and as Post Doctoral Fellow at the University of Warwick’s Department of Physics where he worked on the synthesis of Superconductors.

Whilst employed at the University of Warwick during the early 90’s Dr. Mandair developed a strong interest in the study of his cultural tradition, fuelled partly by his extensive voluntary work within the British Sikh community at grass-roots level. Much of this work took the form of developing intellectual awareness and capacity building amongst second-generation Sikhs through public engagements, lectures and the publication of a new magazine called the Sikh Reformer (1990-1995) which sparked considerable debate and response among British Sikh students.

During the mid-90’s he completed an intellectual transition from science to the humanities by retraining in modern European philosophy, cultural theory and theology but with a specific orientation towards Sikhism and Indian religions. He took a Masters degree in Philosophy (with Distinction) in 1994 followed by a PhD in 1998 both from the University of Warwick. His PhD dissertation, entitled “Thinking Between Cultures: Metaphysics and Cultural Translation”, explores the emergence of Sikh theological hermeneutics in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and its connections to identity formation amongst the contemporary Sikh Diaspora.

His first teaching post in the humanities was at Coventry University in 1998 where he taught Sikh history and religion. This was followed by a post as Post-Doctoral Fellow at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies where he taught Sikhism and co-organized a major international conference on the theory of dialogue called “Dialogue and Difference”. During the week of 9/11 he migrated to New York with his family in order to take up his current position at Hofstra University. At Hofstra he teaches an introductory course on Sikhism as well as an advanced level course on Sikh Mysticism which will be soon be run as a one-week residential seminar available for the wider Sikh community. He also teaches upper level courses in Indian Religions and is developing theoretical courses that explore the interface between Indian religions, post-modern and post-colonial thought.

Dr. Mandair’s recent publications include the co-edited volume Sikh Religion, Culture and Ethnicity. He is currently completing several book projects including two monographs (Religion and the Politics of Translation, forthcoming Manchester University Press and Theology and Cultural Translation: Revisioning Sikh Experience forthcoming Ashgate Publishing), a new set of translations from the Sikh scriptures entitled Hymns of the Sikh Gurus (co-translated with Christopher Shackle, forthcoming with Routledge) and an edited volume in cultural theory entitled Dialogue and Difference. His current research interests focus on exploring the intersections between religion and comparative cultural theory and rethinking the relationship between mysticism and politics in Indic religions. He has organized and co-organized many international conferences in Sikh studies amongst them Sikh Identity in Transition (University of Warwick 1991), New Perspectives in Sikhism (SOAS 1998) Commemorating the Khalsa (Coventry University 1999), Dialogue and Difference (SOAS 1998), Sikhism and Critical Theory (Hofstra University 2002). In May 2004 he will be hosting a conference that explores Memory and Trauma in Recent Sikh and Punjabi Experience.

Dr. Mandair’s hobbies include tennis, squash and soccer. He lives on Long Island with his wife Preet and his two children Aman-vir Singh and Sukhmani Kaur.

[Khalsa4ever]

Waheguroo jee ka Khalsa!

Waheguroo jee kee Fateh!

Hey Simran although taking a graduate program in Sikh studies is pretty admirable, I think you've got the downside... besides academia and teaching, there really aren't any "outside university" job opportunities specific for Sikh Studies. If you were able to generalize a little bit, maybe go into the sociology of sikhs, or something along those lines, you may be able to cross into other areas which may offer more opportunities.

As for programs, the only one I am aware of is at UBC... I know at least one person that was able to complete a masters in sikh studies from there.

Good luck!

Waheguroo jee ka Khalsa!

Waheguroo jee kee Fateh!

[Singh, Mahan]

The UBC program is headed by Dr. Oberai. He is considered to be one the key members who subscribe to the McLeod’s school of thought. Many may not be aware that in the 1990s (yes, before Vidanti’s term) some of the McLeodian scholars ( who did PhDs under McLeod) were excommunicated by the Akal Takht and they were criticized for their writings and thesis by practically every other Sikh Scholar. There are volumes written about the controversies created by Oberai and his others with that view. I would suggest, do not do PhD under these scholars. M.A may be alright. If you do PhD under any of the McLeodian scholars you will spend rest of your life trying to defend yourself from the criticism coming from a very large number of Sikh Scholars. As suggested in the post above by Khalsa4ever, it is best to PhD on some other subject then develop in Sikh studies. That would be a safer thing to do from the point of view of employment.