Debashish Banerji
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Debashish Banerji

Haridas Chaudhuri Professor & East-West Psychology Chair; Doshi Professor of Asian Art; Core Faculty

East-West Psychology

School of Consciousness and Transformation

Email: dbanerji@ciis.edu

Phone: 415-575-6262

Research Interests

Yoga philosophy and psychology, integral yoga, Bengal Renaissance, Sri Aurobindo, Abanindranath Tagore, modern and contemporary Indian art, Indian nationalism, panasianism, postcolonialism, posthumanism, transcultural studies

Biography

Debashish Banerji is the Haridas Chaudhuri Professor of Indian Philosophies and Cultures and the Doshi Professor of Asian Art at CIIS. He is also the Program Chair for the East-West Psychology department. Prior to CIIS, he served as Professor of Indian Studies and Dean of Academics at the University of Philosophical Research, Los Angeles. He has taught as adjunct faculty at the Pasadena City College, University of California, Los Angeles and University of California, Irvine. His interests lie in postmodern, postcolonial and posthuman approaches to Indian philosophy, psychology and culture. Banerji has curated close to fifteen exhibitions of Indian and Japanese art. He has authored and edited around ten books and art catalogs on major figures of "the Bengal Renaissance" such as the Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore, the artist Abanindranath Tagore and the spiritual thinker Sri Aurobindo; on Critical Posthumanism, Yoga Psychology and on a variety of creative and art-related projects. His most recent books are the monograph Meditations on the Isha Upanishad: Tracing the Philosophical Vision of Sri Aurobindo (Sri Aurobindo Samity and Maha Bodhi Publishers, 2019) and Philo-Sophia: Wisdom Goddess Traditions, co-edited with CIIS emeritus President, Robert McDermott. More updated information on his talks, publications and other academic activities may be found at his website www.debashishbanerji.com.

Education

B.A., English Literature, Bombay University; M.S., Computer Science, University of Louisville, KY; Ph.D., Art History, University of California, Los Angeles.

Awards & Distinctions

Aurobindo Puraskar Award for international excellence in Sri Aurobindo studies from the Sri Aurobindo Bhavan, Kolkata, 2017. Dharma Academy of North America (DANAM) Book Award for Constructive Philosophy for his book Seven Quartets of Becoming: A Transformative Yoga Philosophy Based on the Diaries of Sri Aurobindo.

Courses

Visual Imagination of India, Buddhist Psychospirituality Through Asian Art, Yoga Psychology, Integral Yoga Psychology, Transformative Themes in the Upanishads, Indian Wisdom Traditions, Wisdom Texts, East and West, Sri Aurobindo and Modern Thought, Contemplative Traditions and Practices, Knowledge Work and the Modern Academy, Chan/Zen in Life and Art, Modernity, Colonialism and Transcultural Hermeneutics, Study Abroad Auroville.

Publications

Seven Quartets of Becoming: A Transformative Yoga Philosophy Based on the Diaries of Sri Aurobindo, 2012