CST Welcomes Two New Faculty Members

CST is thrilled to welcome our newest faculty members, Lailatul Fitriyah and Dr. Venu Mehta!

Lailatul Fitriyah, who will be appointed as Assistant Professor of Interreligious Education, is working on her dissertation in the World Religions and World Church program at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. Her project explores the experiences of Indonesian female migrant workers in Singapore who “come from conditions of extreme poverty and routinely face sexual and gender-based violence during their work as domestic workers.” She “seeks to analyze how these Muslim and Christian migrant workers survive within this setting by practicing piety and creating interreligious networks of friendship amongst themselves.” This grassroots-oriented exploration stands in contrast to the conventional image of Muslim-Christian interreligious dialogue centering on male religious leaders. Lailatul explained:

“I believe that scholarship needs to have a real impact on the ground, no matter what your field is. What I’m looking forward to in my journey at CST is translating those academic and research skills into a material, social implication and, of course, engaging with the community who are already doing the footwork.”

Lailatul holds an M.A. in International Peace Studies with an emphasis on religious-based peacebuilding process from the University of Notre Dame and a B.A. in International Relations with an emphasis in non-traditional security agenda from the University of Jember in East Java, Indonesia. Within the last six years, she has contributed chapters to four books including the Introduction to Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies: Intersectional and Interdisciplinary Approaches, Second Edition. She is the recipient of numerous awards, fellowships, and grants, and writes columns regarding Muslim-Christian relations for three national media in Indonesia.

Lailatul has more than seven years of experience organizing and practicing dialogue initiatives in European and North American contexts. She served as a Nostra Aetate Fellow at the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue in Rome in 2015-2016, during which she received a medal from Pope Francis in recognition of her work. Lailatul shared her experiences with Islamophobia, sexism, and racism and her time at the Vatican in the chapter “Skater Skirt, Brown Skin, and Short Hijab,” in If This Be Madness: An Anthology to Honor the Life and Courage of Shamima Shaikh.

Dr. Venu Mehta will join the CST faculty as our first Bhagwan Chandraprabhu Postdoctoral Fellow in Jain Studies! After years of discussion and dreaming, CST, Willamette University, and the Jain Community in North America have teamed up to establish this two-year appointment, which begins this fall.

Venu is working on her dissertation at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, her proposed title being “The Making of a Jain Divinity: Devotion for the Jain Goddess Padmāvatī among the Śvetāmbar Mūrtipūjak Jains in Gujarat.” Her project focuses on the popularity of Padmāvatī, examining why she is “considered as the object of worship and devotion, and accorded public recognition” and investigating Padmāvatī’s efficacy “as the feminine divine within religious and theological frames of the lived Jain tradition.” Venu’s M.A. Thesis in Jain Studies at Florida International University explores Jain communities in the diasporic context of the United States, placing “special emphasis on Jain immigrants’ process of creating a common ‘Jain’ identity.”

In addition to her expertise in Jain studies, Venu holds a Ph.D. with a specialization in Expanded Learning Time and Multicultural Education from Sardar Patel University and an M.A. in English and two bachelor’s degrees, in English Literature and Education respectively, from Bhavnagar University in Gujarat, India. She has received numerous awards, honors, and fellowships for her graduate work. Beyond Jainism and multicultural education through literature education, her research interests include Digital Humanities, Hindu traditions and culture, and Gujarati as a Foreign Language. Her teaching experience spans the last 15 years. Venu aims to connect her interest and work in Jainism and ecology, the Jaina theory of Anekāntavāda, and the Jaina notion of forgiveness with the ongoing interdisciplinary research at CST. She said,

“I am excited to teach Jainism at CST because of CST’s embrace of interreligious dialogue and multiculturalism. I look forward to contributing to the research and pedagogy at CST by connecting my background in education, multiculturalism, and Jainism, and I’m excited to have dialogue with my fellow faculty members and students.”

Venu is the author of two books, Learn Gujarati, A Resource – Book for Global Gujaratis, Beginner’s Level, and Multiculturalism and Globalization: Literature, Society, Education, and is the editor of Literature of South Asian Diaspora. Within the last five years, she has also contributed three chapters regarding Jain Studies to collaborative volumes. In 2010-2011, Venu taught Gujarati as a foreign language during her time as a Fulbright Fellow (FLTA) at Indiana University (Bloomington).

Both scholars see their personal religious backgrounds as providing valuable perspectives to teaching and collaborating at CST. Growing up in India, Venu followed Jainism and sees this insider understanding as an asset rather than a liability, both in her understanding of the practical nature of the tradition and in her ability to understand Jain texts in the language in which they were written. As a self-identified Muslim, Brown, hijab-wearing woman who grew up in Indonesia but has been spent recent years in the midwestern United States, Lailatul understands the complexities of being both part of the majority culture and living as a marginalized minority. She explained: “Here in the United States, the experience of being a minority transformed the way I saw my faith as an opportunity for social movement—finding out what it means on the ground. For me, it means I need to engage with intersectional struggle…If we want to be free, all of us need to be free.”

Venu and Lailatul will move to Claremont this summer and begin teaching courses in the fall.