Portfolio · Research & Academic
It was my karma to be in the land where my foremothers were born.
Research & Academic
My research lives where the academy and the temple meet. Across two continents and six programs of study, one question kept returning: what do the feminine knowledge traditions of India — the yoginis, the sanghas, the goddess herself — have to teach us about peace, diplomacy, and how communities heal?
Having completed my PhD in Diplomacy and the Feminine in Indic Knowledge Systems at Banaras Hindu University, I continue to follow that question through texts, temples, and fieldwork across India.
The Path of Study
- Undergraduate BS Sociology + Certificate in Gerontology — Santa Clara University, USA Thesis: The East-Rising Sun Sets in the West: Elderly Indian Women’s Migration to California
- Certificates Certificates in Peace Building — American University, Washington DC & European Peace University Thesis: Yoga for International Peace Builders
- Master of Arts MA Peace & Conflict Studies — University of Innsbruck, Austria
- Master of Arts MA Environmental Security — UN University for Peace, Costa Rica Thesis: Nature-based Yoga for Domestic Violence Trauma Survivors
- Postgraduate Diploma PGDM Social Innovation Management — Amani Institute, India Thesis: Self-Love for Conflict Transformation and Negation of Violent Attitudes and Thoughts
- Doctor of Philosophy PhD Peace Research — Malaviya Centre for Peace Research, Banaras Hindu University, India Thesis: Epistemological Contributions of Yogini Sanghas to Diplomacy: Pan India, Pan Tradition, Pan Era Studies
Sixty-four yoginis stand in a circle open to the sky — and fieldwork is learning to stand quietly among them.
Research Themes
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Yogini Sanghas & Diplomacy
What the councils of yoginis — pan India, pan tradition, pan era — teach about negotiation, representation, and peace.
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The Feminine in Indic Knowledge Systems
Goddess traditions, women saints, and matrilineal transmission as living epistemologies.
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Yoga, Trauma & Healing
Nature-based and trauma-informed yoga as an instrument of recovery, studied in the field and practised in community.
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Peace & Environmental Security
How ecological stress, gender, and conflict entangle — and what contemplative practice offers those who mediate them.
Selected Academic Writing
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2026
“A Feminist Forgotten: Rokheya Sakhawat”
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2024
“Yogic Systems in Organizational Management”
Contributions to Conflict Management, Peace Economics and Development, Emerald Publishing
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2023
“Indian Women as Peace Activists”
Monsoon Journal, South Asian Studies Association, Loyola Marymount University
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2022
“Yoga, Peace, and Conflict”
Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace, and Conflict, Elsevier
Every temple is an archive; every archive, a temple.
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