AsPr Peter Friedlander

Peter Friedlander lived in India from 1977-1982 where he learned Hindi in Varanasi. He then studied at SOAS (London University) and completed his PhD on the life and works of the medieval Hindi poet-saint Ravidas in 1991. He has taught Hindi language, Buddhist Studies and Indian studies for Antioch University abroad (Bodhgaya), La Trobe University (Melbourne), and the National University of Singapore. He was awarded an honour for his contribution to the study of Hindi and Hindi literature at the World Hindi Conference in South Africa in 2013 and was the invited keynote speaker at the World Hindi Secretariat International Hindi day in Mauritius in 2016.  
His research interests include Hindi language, pedagogy, Hindi print media, religious traditions in South Asia and Buddhism and society. Recent national projects that he has contributed to include: academic advisor on the translation of interpretative signage at the Australian War Museum, academic advisor on the development of the Australian National Curriculum for Hindi (2015-16) organiser and convenor of the first national workshop on Hindi in Australia at ANU in July 2015. He was also a lead convenor for the international conference on Transformations in Asian Religions held at ANU from the 7-9^th April 2016. He was also a lead convenor in the conference on Sacred Sites/Sacred Stories Global perspectives which was held at ANU on April 6-8 2018 and is now a co-organiser of a Symposium on 'New Directions in Language Education' to be held at ANU on September 7-9th 2019.

Hindi-Urdu, language, literature, media studies, history, pedagogy
Religion and society, Hinduism, Dalit Studies, Buddhist Studies

Currently research projects include:

• research and translation studies on Hindi Sant poet saints including Raidas, Kabir and Charandas. 
• research on Buddhism, Hinduism and society and politics in Asia and in South Asia
• research on Hindi language teaching pedagogy and curricula development