Leadership

A fellow philosophical traveler with Mahatma Gandhi, Sushil Mittal is the (founding) Director of the Mahatma Gandhi Center for Global Nonviolence and tenured Associate Professor of Hinduism at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia.

He earned his B.A. from McGill University in Montreal, M.A. from Carleton University in Ottawa, and Ph.D. from University of Montreal. He has served on the faculties of the University of Florida in Gainesville and Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois.

His discipline by training is cultural anthropology, but he is located in a department of religion where he teaches Hinduism and Gandhian thought. He has conducted archival and field research in Canada, India, South Africa, and the United States at intervals during the last decade and a half. The recipient of numerous grants and fellowships, his publications include Development and Change in India (1993), Surprising Bedfellows: Hindus and Muslims in Medieval and Early Modern India (2003), The Hindu World (2004), Religions of South Asia: An Introduction (2006), and Studying Hinduism: Key Concepts and Methods (2008). His current work-in-progress includes The Living Hindu World, Encyclopedia of Hindu Studies, and The Gandhi Reader. He is the (founding) editor of the International Journal of Hindu Studies (1997- ) and the International Journal of Gandhi Studies (2009- ).

Dr. Mittal was born in Canada (his "janma-bhumi") but has now dedicated himself to working in the United States (his "karma-bhumi") and he looks to India as the main source of his spiritual inspiration (his "dharma-bhumi"). He has two children: Aditi, 9, and Ankur, 11, who he hopes will live in a better-organized and more peaceful world. For him, nothing symbolizes that hope, or represents that reality, better than Mahatma Gandhi.

The team working with the director to set the vision and intellectual agenda and to provide oversight of the center includes the advisory board and the board of trustees.

The advisory board serves as a consulting body to the director. The board includes Nobel laureates, former heads of state, senior civil servants, CEOs of international corporations, academicians, scientists, social activists and artists from six continents who pool their experiences from a wide range of backgrounds to promote a culture of nonviolence.

The board of trustees comprises distinguished individuals from the local community who provide broad oversight and guidance for the center’s operations and programs.