Professor Pankaj Jain is an internationally recognized academic leader in Sustainability, Jain Studies, Film Studies, and Diaspora Studies, with about 30 years of experience in the academic and corporate worlds. He is the HoD of Humanities & Languages and the Chair of The India Centre at FLAME University. Until 2020, he was the founding co-chair of India Initiatives Group and Associate Professor in the Departments of Philosophy & Religion and Anthropology at the University of North Texas, a tier-1 American university. He holds a PhD from the University of Iowa and an M.A. from Columbia University. His B.E. was in Computer Science from Karnatak University.
Books:
He is working on his fifth monograph and has coedited the Encyclopedia of Indian Religions (2022) and Indian and Western Philosophical Concepts in Religion (2023). His earlier monographs are Modern Jainism: A Historical Approach (2023), Dharma in America: A Short History of Hindu-Jain Diaspora (2019), award-winning Dharma and Ecology of Hindu Communities: Sustenance and Sustainability (2011), and Science and Socio-Religious Revolution in India: Moving the Mountains (2015).
Articles and Media Presence:
His articles and quotes have appeared in several academic and popular avenues, including the Huffington Post, Washington Post, Times of India's Speaking Tree, and Patheos. In addition, Dr Jain is widely quoted in various American and Indian media outlets. In July 2020, the New York Times interviewed him, and in 2019 Morgan Freeman interviewed him for the section on Jainism in the National Geographic series The Story of God.
Awards:
He received numerous accolades, including the Fulbright-Nehru Fellowship for Environmental Leadership, the Wenner-Gren Grant, and the IIAS Fellowship. In addition, he was nominated for the Sustainability Leadership Award from Memnosyne Institute. His first book also received a couple of American awards.
Social Media Outreach:
His social media handle is @ProfPankajJain, and his podcast #DiscoverIndia is on Spotify, Apple, Google, YouTube, Gaana, and other platforms.
Monographs
Edited Journal, Volume, and Encyclopedia
Academic Journal Articles/Essays
Chapters in Edited Books
Encyclopedia and Bibliographic Articles
Non-Academic Publications
Book Reviews