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Dr. Brainerd Prince

Director, Centre for Thinking, Language and Communication

Associate Professor, Plaksha University



Area of Expertise

  • Dialogical Hermeneutics
  • Philosophy
  • Religious Studies
  • Philosophy of Language

Research Interests

  • Phenomenological Hermeneutics
  • Philosophy and Practice of Education and Research
  • Academic Study of Hinduism
  • Philosophy of Religion

Education

  • PhD in Hermeneutics of Tradition and Aurobindo’s Integral Philosophy, OCMS, Oxford – Middlesex University, London

Past Associations

  • Research Tutor, Oxford Centre for Mission Studies, Oxford
  • Research Fellow, Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, Oxford
  • Research Dean, Ecole Hoteliere at Lavasa, Lavasa

Bio

Brainerd has a keen interest in diverse fields that include philosophy & religion, academic research, media & communication, business & entrepreneurship and social engagement.

He has taught courses, and presented papers in conferences and consultations at various universities and institutions in the UK, Europe, South East Asia and India over the past 15 years. He has developed and directed a year-long PhD Preparatory Programme through which several students from the Global South have successfully got admission into UK Universities for PhD programmes.

He has directed international research-based projects in Asia (Vidarbha, Nagpur, and Delhi, India) and Africa (Mwanzo and Magugu, Tanzania) on the theme of ‘faith and development’ which also led to the development of two Practitioner Handbooks, Seeking Wholeness Together: Implementing Development in Faith Contexts Handbook and Nurturing Children Together Handbook designed to equip development workers in the areas of inter-religious dialogue and collaboration.

As part of social engagement through education, he set up the Touch India Trust foundation and gave leadership to a variety of projects and initiatives such as The Tent, a café with a difference for university students, InTouch India, a RNI registered monthly youth magazine and Shiksha Rath, an educational intervention programme for underprivileged slum children in North Delhi (shiksharath.org).

Current Institutional Affiliations:

  • Fellow, Royal Asiatic Society, London
  • Associate Member, Green Templeton College, University of Oxford

Book Publications and Writing Projects:

  • His first book The Integral Philosophy of Aurobindo: Hermeneutics and the Study of Religion was published by Routledge, Oxon in 2017.
  • He is presently writing his second book for Routledge, Oxon, on the eleventh-century Indian Nyaya scholar, Udayanacharya’s ‘philosophy of Samvada’, a model for a dialogue of traditions, which has application both in the religious and secular worlds.
  • Monthly Columnist with Morung Express, a regional newspaper out of Nagaland.