Aseem Shukla

Aseem Shukla
NationalityAmerican
EducationCooper City High School[1]
Alma materUniversity of Florida (BS)
University of South Florida College of Medicine (MD)
Occupation(s)Director, Minimally Invasive Surgery, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and Professor of Surgery (Urology), Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania

Aseem Ravindra Shukla is the director of minimally invasive surgery in the Department of Urology at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and is a professor of surgery (urology) at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.[2] Shukla is the co-founder and board member of the Hindu American Foundation.

Medical career

Education

Aseem Shukla graduated from Cooper City High School.[1] He completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Florida and received his Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of South Florida. He then went on to do his residency in general surgery and urology at the same institution. Following that, he did his fellowship in pediatric urology at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.[2][3]

Shukla completed residencies in general surgery and urology at the University of South Florida College of Medicine and a fellowship in pediatric urology at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). Prior to returning to CHOP, he served as director of urology at the University of Minnesota Amplatz Children's Hospital and held associate professorships in urology and pediatrics at the University of Minnesota. Shukla also served as the residency program director of the University of Minnesota Department of Urology. At CHOP, Shukla is the director of minimally invasive surgery with a clinical and research interest in robotic-assisted laparoscopy, urinary reflux, hydronephrosis, urinary tract reconstruction, hypospadias and disorders of sexual differentiation.

International bladder exstrophy collaboration

Shukla is active in efforts to develop pediatric urology as a discipline globally. Since 2009, Shukla has ld an annual complex pediatric urological surgery teaching course and multi-institutional collaboration—The International Bladder-Exstrophy and Epispadias Collaborative—at the Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad, India[4] that is supported by the Association for the Bladder Exstrophy Community [5] and Hindu American Physicians in Seva.[6] Shukla is also a volunteer surgeon for the Foundation for the Children of Iran, a not-for-profit organization founded in 1991 by Princess Yasmine Pahlavi to help arrange medical and surgical treatment for Iranian children.[7]

Religious advocacy

Shukla is the co-founder and board member of the Hindu American Foundation, a religious advocacy group founded in 2002.[8] Shukla has written for the Washington Post's "On Faith" section and participated in an online debate with Deepak Chopra over the Hindu roots of yoga.[9]

Debate with Deepak Chopra

In April 2010, Shukla, on a Washington Post-sponsored blog on faith and religion, criticized Chopra for suggesting that yoga did not have origins in Hinduism but is instead an Indian spiritual tradition which predated Hinduism.[10] Later on, Chopra tried to explain yoga as rooted in "consciousness alone" which according to him, is a universal, non-sectarian eternal wisdom of life expounded by Vedic rishis long before historic Hinduism arose. Chopra accused Shukla of having a "fundamentalist agenda."[11] In a rejoinder entitled "Dr. Chopra: Honor thy heritage" Shukla called Chopra an exponent of the art of "How to Deconstruct, Repackage and Sell Hindu Philosophy Without Calling it Hindu!" Responding to the allegation of being a fundamentalist, Shukla accused Chopra of raising the "bogey of communalism" in order to divert the argument.[12] The Shukla vs. Chopra debate, and the Hindu American Foundation's Take Back Yoga Archived 2012-12-02 at the Wayback Machine campaign, was subsequently covered in the New York Times and Newsweek magazine.[13][14]

Debate with Wendy Doniger

In March 2010, Shukla debated with Wendy Doniger on elements of one of her books on a Washington Post sponsored blog on faith and religion, and accused her of sexualising and exoticising some of the holiest passages in the Hindu scriptures. Doniger replied that her book has sold well in India and asked her critics to show specifically where her interpretations of texts were wrong.[15]

References

  1. ^ a b "Hindus Finding Themselves in South Florida the Area's 12,000 Hindus Must Struggle to Reconcile Their Stringent Religious Values with the Demands of Modern Life". 29 September 1985. Archived from the original on 10 December 2023. Retrieved 10 December 2023.
  2. ^ a b "Your Partners in Care". 15 April 2014. Archived from the original on 19 August 2014. Retrieved 17 October 2012.
  3. ^ "US News Health "Best Children's Hospital"". Archived from the original on 2012-07-18. Retrieved 2012-10-17.
  4. ^ "Unknown". Archived from the original on 2016-04-08. Retrieved 2012-12-22.[permanent dead link]
  5. ^ "Home". bladderexstrophy.com. Archived from the original on 2020-07-25. Retrieved 2020-07-25.
  6. ^ "HAF Launches Hindu American Physicians in Seva Program | Hindu American Foundation (HAF)". Archived from the original on 2017-10-16. Retrieved 2012-12-22.
  7. ^ "Aseem Shukla, M.D., F.A.A.P. : The Foundation for the Children of Iran". Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2012-12-22.
  8. ^ "Who We Are | Hindu American Foundation (HAF)". Archived from the original on 2014-11-04. Retrieved 2012-12-22.
  9. ^ .The theft of yoga, The Washington Post, April 18, 2010.
  10. ^ Shukla and Chopra 2010, The theft of yoga.
  11. ^ Shukla and Chopra 2010, Sorry, your patent on yoga has run out.
  12. ^ Shukla and Chopra 2010, Dr. Chopra, honor thy heritage.
  13. ^ Vitello, Paul (November 27, 2010). "Hindu Group Stirs Debate in Fight for Soul of Yoga". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 13, 2015. Retrieved February 24, 2017.
  14. ^ Miller, Lisa (2010-05-14). "Do Yoga's Hindu Roots Matter?". Newsweek. Retrieved 2024-07-22.
  15. ^ Aseem Shukla, 'Whose history is it anyway?', Washington Post, March 17, 2010.

Sources