Program

Date: Friday, 14 August 2020 8 pm to 10 pm (Singapore Time), 8 am to 10 am (USA EST)

Venue: Online

Program:

OPENING HYMN

Sangachadwam – Harmony in Unity”

WELCOME

Dr. A.D. Amar, Professor of Management, Stillman School of Business, Seton Hall University, USA

GREETINGS

Mr. G. Srinivasan by Chairman, Gita Jayanti Committee, Singapore

MODERATOR

Dr. Mike Stebbins, Toth/Lonergan Visiting Professor in Interdisciplinary Studies, Seton Hall University, USA 

 ONLINE QUIZ on audience’s knowledge on The Bhagavad Gita

THE BHAGAVAD GITA AND INTER-RELIGIOUS INCLUSIVITY

Dr. Jon Radwan, Director - Institute for Communication and Religion,College of Communication and The Arts, Seton Hall University, USA

BHAGAVAD GITA AND INTERFAITH THEOLOGY

Rabbi Alan Brill, Cooperman/Ross Endowed Chair for Jewish-Christian Studies, Seton Hall University, USA

THE BHAGAVAD GITA APPLIED TO MANKIND TODAY

Swami Sarvapriyananda, Minister & Spiritual Leader, Vedanta Society of New York of Ramakrishna Mission

THE BHAGAVAD GITA AND SPIRITUAL LIFE

Swami Samachittananda,President, Ramakrishna Mission Singapore

THE BHAGAVAD GITA: MANUAL FOR MODERN LIVING

Professor Vineeta Sinha, Head of Department of Sociology, National University of Singapore

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

ONLINE QUIZ on audience’s knowledge on The Bhagavad Gita

VOTE OF THANKS

Mr. Mohamed Imran, Director of Centre for Interfaith Understanding (CIFU), Singapore

END OF EVENT

Distinguished Speakers

Dr. Jon Radwan is Director of the Institute for Communication and Religion in Seton Hall University’s College of Communication and The Arts. He earned a B.A. in Communication from the University of New Hampshire, an M.A. in Communication Studies from Northern Illinois University, and a Ph.D. in Speech Communication from Penn State University. His teaching and research focus on the intersection of Rhetoric and Religion, examining how ancient traditions influence contemporary public discourse.
 
Dr. Alan Brill is the Cooperman/Ross Endowed Chair for Jewish-Christian Studies at Seton Hall University, where he teaches Jewish studies in the Department of Religion and the Jewish-Christian Studies Graduate Program. He specializes in interfaith theology, Jewish mysticism, modern Jewish thought and contemporary Jewish Orthodoxy and offers courses in medieval and modern Jewish thought, Jewish mysticism, interfaith encounter and Jewish theology.

 
Swami Sarvapriyananda is a prolific speaker and published scholar who currently serves as the Minister and Spiritual Leader of the Vedanta Society of New York, an organization affiliated with the Ramakrishna Order of Hinduism. Since taking over the VSNY — which is the oldest society of its kind in the United States — in 2017, Sarvapriyananda has spoken on a range of religious issues such as "Spiritualizing Everyday Life" and "Karma and Freedom" at locations across the country.

 Swami Samachittananda is the current President of Ramakrishna Mission Singapore. He is also a Council Member of Singapore’s 'Inter-Religious Organization".  

   Professor Vineeta Sinha is Head of Department at the Department of Sociology at National University of Singapore (NUS). She obtained her Master of Social Sciences from NUS and her Master and PhD in Anthropology from Johns Hopkins University. Her research and teaching interests include the following areas: Hindu religiosity in the Diaspora; religion-state encounters; religion, commodification and consumption practices; history and practice of sociology; critique of concepts and categories in the social sciences; rethinking the teaching of classical sociological theory.

Speakers

A chartered accountant by profession, Mr. G Srinivasan has served as the Director of Singapore operations in a multinational trading company for 20 years. He also serves the General Manager and Financial Advisor for a group of companies with diversified operations in SE Asia until recently. In addition, Srinivasan is active in the religious and music circle, serving in positions on organizations like Singapore Indian Fine Arts Society (SIFAS), Singapore Dakshina Bharata Brahmana Sabha (SDBBS) and, most recently, as the Chairman of the Gita Jayanti HEB (Hindu Endowments Board) Sub-committee.

J. Michael Stebbins, Ph.D., has been appointed as Seton Hall University’s Toth/Lonergan Endowed Visiting Professor for the 2020-2021 academic year. Dr. Stebbins' areas of expertise include systematic theology, ethics, human cognition and decision-making, and the theological and philosophical work of Bernard Lonergan.

Mohamed Imran Mohamed Taib is a founding Board member of the Centre for Interfaith Understanding in Singapore. He is former manager of Harmony Centre under the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore, and an associate research fellow at the Studies in Interreligious Relations in Plural Societies programme at S Rajaratnam School of International Studies. Imran is an interfaith advocate, facilitator and writer. He is co-editor of Budi Kritik (2018, Ethos Books), a compilation of critical essays on Malay society. Some of his writings have been published in Channel NewsAsia, Today, The Straits Times and South China Morning Post. He recent essay, “Singapore’s Interfaith Landscape” was published in Fahy and Bock, eds., The Interfaith Movement (with Paul Hedges; Routledge, 2019). Imran is a graduate in philosophy and currently runs a community philosophy initiative in Singapore.