Dancer | Educator | Curator | Writer

Welcome! My name is Manjari (Mun-juh-ree/rhymes with strawberry). I am a PhD candidate at Tufts University. My doctoral project is on the Baghdadi and Bene Israel Jews of India. Through performance and embodied knowledge systems, I explicate and analyze complex formations of race, religion, gender, and nationalism in early twentieth-century South Asia. I trained as a Kathak dancer for nearly 20 years, worked as an art curator for India's leading online art aggregator, and have been actively building an archive of Jewish actresses in Bollywood. In my dissertation project, I draw on archival work, oral interviews, and visual analysis, combining my training as a performer, curator, and archivist.  Apart from my dissertation project, I work as an educator and community builder.