Social Sciences

Shilpa Pandit in her more than two decade long adventure has primarily identified herself as a researcher as it resonates with her being. Working as researcher has meant that she has never viewed work as dichotomous in terms of personal and professional, philosophical and applied, primitive and modern, social and individual, thought and action and other such contrivances even while recognizing the distinctions between them. During her work of 30 years, she has alternatively wandered and worked as a pilgrim and an exile in three distinct yet linked actions:

• Teaching – Shilpa teaches social psychology, research methods and health psychology; She has been teaching as an Associate Professor in Chinmaya Vishwavidyapeeth, Kochi. She helped set up the postgraduate program in Psychology and also the launch the PhD program at CVV. At CVV, she helped set up courses such as yoga and meditation in integration with health psychology, nutrition and health in psychology and psychology and law. Earlier, she has taught research methods – esp, qualitative methods and mixed methods in RGNIYD(Rajiv Gandhi National Institute for Youth Development, Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu) and BALM’s post-gradutate programme with TISS (Banyan Institute for Leadership in Mental Health). Recently, in 2019 she was the only psychologist to create and take a course on Psychology and Public Policy, for Indian School of Public Policy, New Delhi(Faculty – ISPP) for a postgraduate programme.
• Researching
  • Issues such as poverty and livelihoods, health and gender, youth engagement with work, applied social psychology and select laws. She has consulted with several organisations- UNICEF, UNDP, IFMR, MSSRF, SIAAP, and KHPT.
  • As a seeker of the sacred, she has researched insights from Indian Darśana-s - Advaita and Viśiṣtādvaita Vedānta, Kāśmir Śaiva thought and yoga-sāmkhya. Reviewing concepts and theories emanating thereof, on the way, papers on self, yoga and meditation and rasa theory have been published.
• Founding – She, along with a few friends, co-founded an organisation/NGO, Dreampath Foundation(www//: www.dreampathfoundation.org). Dreampath Foundation is based out of Bengaluru and works with adolescents and youth on work and careers. As of 2025, Dreampath Foundation in its 10 years journey has 15 members in the team, and has reached out to more than 25000 students in 50+ schools in Karnataka, through its workshops and a dedicated career helpline. Currently, she is trying to build a team for another social enterprise for addressing mental health issues in India

Earlier, Shilpa worked as UNDP Research officer, on public policy relating to rural employment from 2014-2016, with the Ministry of Rural Development. During this time, she visited 10 states and about 40 districts for her field visits. She was part of research review of the MoRD programs-esp., MGNREGA. She is still active on issues relating to social accountability of public service delivery.

Shilpa was also the Head- Monitoring and Evaluation, Hand in Hand(India), from 2016-2018 with a team of 11 members, where M&E routinely commissioned research evaluations for funded projects on women empowerment, health, education and skills in Rural Tamil Nadu and some project areas in rural Madhya Pradesh. The team also conducted scoping studies, midline evaluations and set and monitored the results framework for all internal projects. One of the highlights during her work was that her team transitioned to tablets for their research work, reducing data collection, entry and validation time and improving quality of data. She was also a SPoC for CSR funded project to create an online market eco-system for rural women entrepreneurs.

In 2018, Shilpa was selected for the Chevening Fellowship (CRISP) at the University of Oxford, UK, for her leadership in social sector.

Current research questions and projects at different stages from ideation to design to action

• A book manuscript on music, immersion and meditation states.
• A research study on meditators, using micro-phenomenology.
• Collaboration with community organizations for creating a capacity building program for lay counselors for community health, including community mental health among tribal districts in Maharashtra.

Books:

Pandit S.A.(2025) A Textbook on Social Psychology and Law in India: A Textbook on Social Psychology and Law in India: Navigating the Intersection | SpringerLink

Pandit S.A. (2025) Introduction to Psychology: Global Outlook, Indian Perspectives (2025) - https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9781003506249/introduction-psychology-shilpa-pandit

Pandit S.A.(2023) Decolonising Consciousness: Reclaiming the Indian Psychology of Well-being - https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9781003336204/decolonizing-consciousness-shilpa-ashok-pandit

Journal Papers and Book Chapters

Pandit, S. A., Nanavati, A. A., Mehta, B., & Yadav, S. (2025). Distress, coping and emotional health during the gradual opening of university systems, post COVID19, in India. International Journal of Adolescence and Youth, 30(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/02673843.2025.2455542

Pandit, S.A. (2024). Bridging the Self-Other Divide: Rasa, Self-Transformation, and Well-Being in Indian Psychology. In: Misra, G., Misra, I. (eds) Emotions in Cultural Context. International and Cultural Psychology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-46349-5_4

Pandit, S.A. Reclaiming Indian Psychology: Some Reflections. Psychol Stud 69 (Suppl 1), 40–45 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12646-023-00755-1

Iyer, A. V., Venkatraman, A., Pandit, S. A., & Ananthanarayanan, R. (2023, October 23). Can Consciousness cease?: A perspective from Hindu contemplative traditions. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/3n8af

Pandit, S. A. (2022). Conceptualising Bhāvana: How do contemplative Hindu traditions inform understanding emotions and well-being? Culture & Psychology, (sagepub.com) 1354067X221118919.

Pandit, S.A. & Annamraju, RK (2022), Indigenous World-Views in the Post COVID-19 World: Towards a Necessary Integration of Indigenous World-Views in Development and Health Discourse. Journal of Future Studies, 27(2).

Pandit S. A. (01-2023). Rasa in Indian Wisdom Traditions: From Aesthetic experience to radical transformation of life and living. In Swapnil Chaphekar, PN Prabhavathy & Ramakrishna Pejathaya (Eds) . Sangita Sinkirtanam: Music and Bhakti . (237-249). Pune: Chinmaya International Foundation.

Pandit S.A. (2021) Advaita: Oneness as a lived reality- examining aspects of profound and a radical psychology(2021) Psychology and Developing Societies, SAGE Link Advaita: Oneness as a Lived Reality—Examining Aspects of Profound and a Radical Psychology
Pandit S.A. (2021) Risk and resilience among Indian adolescents: A community approach (2021) link: Risk and Resilience Among Indian Adolescents: A Community Approach | SpringerLink

Pandit, S. A., Vaidya, A., Shah, A., Shah, E., Iyer, I., Golani, J., ... & Dave, T. (2022). Coping resources of young people experiencing COVID-19 second wave, in India: a preliminary study. Journal of Psychosocial Research, 17(1), 189-199.: https://doi.org/10.32381/JPR.2022.17.01.16

Special Issue Editor: Pandit, S., Raghavan, V., & Shankar, S. (2020). Indian Knowledge Traditions: Perspectives in Education, Health and Consciousness(Special Issue). Journal of Psychosocial Research, Volume 15, number 2, 370-522.

Social Psychology,

Introduction to Psychology

Positive Psychology