Dr. Nirinjan Kaur Khalsa is the Clinical Professor of Sikh & Jain Studies at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California. She received her Ph.D in Asian Languages and Cultures from the University of Michigan in 2014, writing on “The Renaissance of Sikh Devotional Music.” Professor Khalsa has conducted extensive ethnographic research throughout Northern India and is the first female to seriously study the Jorī-Pakhāwaj. Her ongoing research investigates diversity in the Sikh diaspora.

Currently, Professor Khalsa is researching the relationship between the Jain and Sikh religions, particularly by examining their coexistence in Patna, Bihar via the adjacent Sikh Takht and the Old Jain Temple.