Doctoral Researcher

• Primary Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Heike Oberlin
• Secondary supervisor: Prof. Dr. Karin Polit
• Third supervisor (external): Prof. Dr. Filippo Osella (University of Sussex)

Rajashree Raju joined the Department of Indology as a PhD researcher in 2021. Her work traces the history of the government-sponsored youth festival hosted annually for schoolchildren in the south Indian state of Kerala since 1957. The attempt is to engage systematically with the social and cultural history of this massive state-level cultural arts competition, which is now promoted by the state government and the regional media as Asia's largest cultural event. By situating its emergence within the social and cultural contexts of nation-region building after Indian independence and Kerala state formation, the work investigates the vicissitudes of the arts and culture education in the state over the past six decades.

Prior to joining the PhD programme, she served as Communications Officer at India Foundation for the Arts (IFA), Bangalore, and Deputy Programme Manager of the Performing Arts Department and Co-Curricular Programme at Ashoka University, Sonepat, India.

Rajashree holds a Master of Arts (Hons.) degree in Liberal Arts with a specialisation in Performing Arts from Ashoka University, Sonepat, and a Bachelor of Arts (Hons.) degree in History from Miranda House, University of Delhi.

She was involved in LGBTIQA+ advocacy in India through Queerala, an LGBTQIA+ organisation where she organised campaigns against the practice of "reparative" or "conversion" therapy and filed the litigation seeking its ban in the Kerala High Court.

Curriculum Vitae