Shilpa Pandit

Shilpa Ashok Pandit teaches psychology at Ahmedabad University, Gujarat, India. She has more than two decades long and fulfilling adventure in three intersecting domains of teaching, research and social action. From an Indian perspective, this has meant that she has never viewed work as dichotomous in terms of philosophical and applied, primitive and modern, social and individual, thought and action and other such dualities even while recognizing the conventional distinctions between them.

Shilpa has researched on indic concepts that are central to an Indian Psychology, such as Rasa and Bhāva.  She studies primary texts from Indian Darśana-s - Advaita and Viśiṣtādvaita Vedānta, Kāshmir Śaiva thought and yoga-sāmkhya to understand the Indic concepts and their semantic and applied mapping. She has published papers on self, yoga and meditation and rasa theory.. Her recent publications include emotions in Hindu contemplative traditions (Conceptualising Bhāvana: How do contemplative Hindu traditions inform understanding emotions and well-being? - Shilpa Ashok Pandit, 2022 (sagepub.com) and (Decolonizing Consciousness | Reclaiming the Indian Psychology of Well- (taylorfrancis.com). She is currently working on a book manuscript on Indian music and Consciousness.

During her work of 23 years, she has alternatively wandered and worked - as a pilgrim and an exile in the social psychological domain as well. She has previously worked at UNDP (India) and consulted with various organizations - RGNIYD, MSSRF, IFMR etc. as part of her work in social psychology. She has co-founded a Bengaluru based organization, where Dreampath Volunteers work with young people to understand careers and life skills- Dream Path Foundation. Over the last 10 years, Dreampath Foundation has worked with more than 20000 in Karnataka, India