Staff profile

Dr Peter Friedlander

Senior Lecturer

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

School of Social Sciences

p.friedlander@latrobe.edu.au, Melbourne (Bundoora)

 

Qualifications

BA (London), PhD (London).

Membership of professional associations

Editorial Board Member of the Electronic Journal of Foreign Language teaching. (See: http://e-flt.nus.edu.sg/ea_board.htm).

Area of study

Asian Studies
Hindi

Brief profile

Peter Friedlander teaches Hindi and Buddhist Studies. After he left high school he lived in India for five years where he learned Hindi in Varanasi and became fascinated with the study of South Asian cultures and traditions. His research interests include Hindi teaching pedagogy, the history of religion in South Asia and Buddhist studies. He is currently involved in research on the interaction of Asian and Western Buddhist and Hindu traditions and the issue of how Buddhists see India, and how India sees Buddhists. Peter is also an Executive Committee Member of the Australasian Association for Buddhist Studies. (See: http://www.buddhiststudies.org.au/about.htm).

Research interests

Asian Cultural Studies

- Hindi Studies

Religion and Society

- Buddhist Studies

Teaching units

  • HND1BEA - Beginning Hindi 1A.
  • HND1BEB - Beginning Hindi 1B.
  • HND2BEA - Beginning Hindi 2A.
  • HND2BEB - Beginning Hindi 2B.
  • AST2/3INB - Introduction to Buddhism.

Recent publications

  • Friedlander, P 2010, 'The Body and World in Buddhism', in Elizabeth Burns Coleman, and Kevin White (eds), Medicine, Religion, and the Body, Brill, Leiden.
  • Friedlander, P 2009, 'Buddhism and Politics', in J Haynes (ed.), Routledge Handbook of Religion and Politics, Routledge, London and New York, 11-25.
  • Friedlander, P 2009, 'The Hindi Newspaper Revolution: Teaching Reading of Print and Online News Media', Electronic Journal of Foreign Language Teaching, 6(1): 254–267.
  • Friedlander, P 2009, 'Dhammapada Traditions and Translations', Journal of Religious History, 33(2): 218-237.
  • Friedlander, P 2007, 'Dhammapada: Translations and Recreations', in R Palapathwala and A Karickam (eds), One Word, Many Versions, Dr Alexander Marthoma Centre for Dialogue, Tiruvalla-1 Kerala, 54-76.
  • Friedlander, P 2006, 'Hindustani Textbooks from the Raj', Electronic Journal of Foreign Language Teaching, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Volume 3 Supplement, April, [online at http://e-flt.nus.edu.sg/archive/v3sp2006.htm] ISSN 0219-9874.
  • Friedlander, P and Aveling, H 2005, The Songs of Daya Bai, Prestige Books, Delhi.
  • Friedlander, P, Jeffrey, R, and Seth, S 2001, 'Subliminal Charge: How Hindi-Language Newspaper Expansion Affects India', Media International Australia, No.100 - August 2001.
  • Friedlander, P 1996, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Hindi Manuscripts in the Library of the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, Wellcome Trust, London.
  • Callewaert, WM and Friedlander, P 1992, The Life and Works of Sant Raidas, Manohar: Delhi.

Research projects

The first project is to develop resources for the study of how Asian Buddhist pilgrims see India and how India sees Asian Buddhist pilgrims. Through this I hope to explore Asian perceptions of India and the role of India in Asia. The second project is a study of translations of the Hindi poet saint Kabir’s works and the relationship between nineteenth century Hindi verses attributed to Kabir and the verses translated in 1914 by Rabindranath Tagore into English. The aim of this study it to investigate the role that translation plays in how religious traditions modernize.