The designers would like to thank the following for their
support which helped to make your visit to this website possible.
Our respective universities, the
College of the Holy Cross and Southwestern
University, offered their support and endorsement. Our departments
and colleagues also offered important feedback and support. Peter
is also indebted to many of the faculty and staff at his previous
institution, Southwestern University.
Without the ITS staff at all of these institutions, this project would
have been impossible.
The majority of the funds necessary for this effort were made possible through a Group Project Grant awarded by the Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion.
A major redesign of “A Virtual Village” in 2004 was made
possible through Wesleyan University and its Learning Object project
as funded by the Davis Educational Foundation. Mike Roy played a leading
role bringing this website into that project while Anne Loyer led
a team of gifted graphic designers and other specialists including
Manolis Kaparkis, William Sweetman, Wolasi Kofi Konu, Luis Henao,
Allyn Wilkinson, Matthew Elson, Rob DeMeulemeester, and Mauricio Fuentes.
The Brown Foundation provided Peter with generous support that allowed
him time and aid for the project during the 2000-2001 academic year.
The Center
for Asian Studies at the University of Texas at Austin also provided
us with financial and logistical support. Special thanks to Professor
Janice Leoshko and Pamela Abee-Taulli.
Suzanne Bonefas of the Associated
Colleges of the South Technology Center gave essential technical
support and invited us to post this site on the ACS server.
Ramu Pandit provided help through his invaluable advice and inexhaustible
number of contacts in Banaras.
Dr. Pradeep Mehendiratta, Director-General of the American
Institute of Indian Studies, offered his immense expertise in
obtaining permission from the Government
of India, which we also thank.
Alison Kaminsky of the Asia
Society provided wonderful feedback on the proposal.
Professor Liz Wilson of Miami University helped inspire this project
with her Virtual Pilgrimage to Banaras.
Chris Williams provided invaluable insights into photographic technique.
We also thank those who have given us such helpful feedback and support:
Joe Elder, Rick Asher, Jennifer Higgens, Mary Visser, Phil Hopkins,
Laura Hobgood-Oster, Farley Snell, Ed Kain, Gwen Nevelle-Kennedy,
Doug Wixon, Dan Hilliard and Mario Gonzales.
Angela Townley, Francis Chu, Rebecca Pierce, and Brian Brown provided
the essential and tedious service of scanning many of the images from
slides to digital format.
Finally, we thank our families for their wonderful ideas, kind patience,
and enduring support for "A Virtual Village" even when it
required our presence in the actual village half a world away.