2025 Jain Cultural Festival at the University of North Texas: Special Feature

Abstract

On March 1, 2025 the Jain Studies Program at the University of North Texas held a Jain Cultural Festival featuring booths for local Jain businesses and organizations, a community art show, and a student essay contest. The event was sponsored by the Jain Education and Research Foundation (JERF), the Jain Society of North Texas (JSNT), and the Dallas chapter of the Jain International Trade Organization (JITO), with support from students, staff, and faculty in the Department of Philosophy and Religion, the JSNT Public Relations Committee members Amit Jain and Virang Shah, and the JSNT Pathshala Coordinator Shaily Jain.

We began with opening remarks from Dean Albert Bimper of UNT’s College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences. We also welcomed special guest Prem Jain, representing JERF and JITO, who was instrumental in founding our endowment in 2017. Other speakers included Anil Mundra, the Bhagvan Vimalnath Endowed Chair in Jain Studies and South Asian Religions at UC Santa Barbara, who gave a lecture on campus the day before the festival, and Rohit Gangwal, the current president of JSNT, who provided closing remarks. In our inaugural issue of Samyak: An Undergraduate Journal of Jain Studies we are delighted to feature the winners of the student essay contest and community art show. 

Please see our website to learn more about the cultural festival and other events and programs.