Overview
Vivek Joseph is a doctoral student in the Graduate Program in Religion (Asian Religions). His work lies at the intersections of religion, caste, gender and sexuality in the context of popular/'folk' religious belief systems and practices in southern India, centred on the state of Telangana, but also looking at the Telugu and Tamil lands at large.
Vivek's work primarily revolves around the experiences and expressions of religious belief and practice amongst women, trans and queer folx of south Indian Dalit and Bahujan peoples, across faith communities. From oral histories, divination and public festivities, to sacred materiality and embodied performance, Vivek has been actively engaged in forms of collaborative ethnography with the communities he works with, documenting and exploring visually and through writing how belief and ritual are intertwined with social, economic and polticial realities.
Vivek holds a Masters in Development Studies from SOAS, University of London, and a Bachelors in History, Economics and Political Science from St. Joseph's University, Bangalore, India.
Before Duke, he worked in the social justice, development and public policy space in his hometown of Hyderabad, also the epicenter of his research, experience that heavily shapes his approach to studying religion.
Vivek's work primarily revolves around the experiences and expressions of religious belief and practice amongst women, trans and queer folx of south Indian Dalit and Bahujan peoples, across faith communities. From oral histories, divination and public festivities, to sacred materiality and embodied performance, Vivek has been actively engaged in forms of collaborative ethnography with the communities he works with, documenting and exploring visually and through writing how belief and ritual are intertwined with social, economic and polticial realities.
Vivek holds a Masters in Development Studies from SOAS, University of London, and a Bachelors in History, Economics and Political Science from St. Joseph's University, Bangalore, India.
Before Duke, he worked in the social justice, development and public policy space in his hometown of Hyderabad, also the epicenter of his research, experience that heavily shapes his approach to studying religion.