iNDICA NEWS BUREAU-
The Indian-American professor was recently honored with the Outstanding Research Faculty award by a university in Ohio.
On Sept. 3, Shawnee State University, in Portsmouth, Ohio, named a well-known professor of history and religious studies Lavanya Vemsani as 2020’s Outstanding Research Faculty award by the SSU Senate.
This is the first year the award was instituted and given at SSU, and it recognizes excellence in research to the faculty member with the most contribution to the collective knowledge, a university news release said.
“I am not only thrilled but honored, to receive the Outstanding Research Faculty award by SSU,” Vemsani said in a news release.
Vemsani has been teaching at SSU since 2006, and she is a recipient to many awards like, Distinguished Teaching Award for Teaching Excellence (2003 – SSU); Best Canadian Ph.D. Dissertation on South Asia (2007 – Canadian Asian Studies Association); and Barkley’s of Avonmore Award for a Scholar from the Third World (2000 & 2001 – McMaster University).
She has published several books, Modern Hinduism in Text and Context (2018); Krishna in History, Thought, and Culture: Encyclopedia of the Hindu Lord of Many Names (2016); and Hindu and Jain Mythology of Balarama (2006).
Vemsani has also written numerous articles and journals, as well as participated in many research and fellowships. She is currently working on another book, Ancient Settlement Patterns of Southern India, her bio notes.
This past summer, Vemsani was also appointed as an honorary visiting professor of Ancient India at Jawaharlal Nehru University in India.
The honorary appointment provides her the possibilities of collaboration in teaching and research with the faculty of Center for Historical Studies at JNU, the release said.
Vemsani and her colleagues are enthusiastic about the invitation and want to explore the possibilities of offering collaborative or exchange programs to benefit both SSU and JNU, it said.
