Rita D. Sherma, PhD

Professor Rita D. Sherma, PhD, is founding Director and Associate Professor at Graduate Theological Union’s (GTU) Shingal Center for Dharma Studies | Core Doctoral Faculty | Department Chair of Theology & Ethics | and Co-Chair of Sustainability 360 Initiative at GTU, Berkeley, CA. Formerly, she was the Swami Vivekananda Visiting Professor in Hindu Studies at USC, Los Angeles. She holds an MA in Women’s Studies in Religion, and a PhD in Theology & Ethics from Claremont Graduate University, CA. Dr. Sherma (with Dr. Adarsh Deepak) is the co-founder and Vice President of DANAM (Dharma Academy of North America)—a scholarly society for research on Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, and Yoga Studies and interreligious studies.

Dr. Sherma has published widely with over fifty articles, book chapters, and published essays, and authored/edited numerous books. Her books include (amongst others) Contemplative Studies & Hinduism: Meditation, Devotion, Prayer, & Worship | Swami Vivekananda: His Life, Legacy, & Liberative Ethics | Hermeneutics & Hindu Thought: Toward a Fusion of Horizons | Woman & Goddess in Hinduism: Reinterpretations & Re-evisionings. She is the founding Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Dharma Studies (Springer), and an Associate Editor for Springer’s Encyclopedia of Indian Religions (A. Sharma, General Editor). She serves on the Editorial Board of “Reading Religion” Journal (an AAR publication), serves as Advisor to the Parliament of the World’s Religions Climate Action-sponsored Faith for the Earth online & print publishing project. Dr. Sherma is a member of the Advisory Board of the Yale Forum for Religion and Ecology. Her most recent volume (co-edited with P. Bilimoria) is Religion & Sustainability ~Interreligious Resources, Interdisciplinary Responses: Intersection of Sustainability Studies and Religion, Theology, Philosophy, published through Springer Nature’s United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Series (UNEP SDGs), a project of the UNEP Publisher’s Compact.