Dancer | Educator | Dramaturg | Writer

Hi there! I'm Manjari Mukherjee, a President's Postdoctoral Scholar (2026–28), and I recently earned my PhD in Theatre and Performance Studies from Tufts University. My doctoral work explores the Baghdadi and Bene Israel Jews of India—using performance and embodied knowledge systems to unpack the complex ways race, religion, gender, and nationalism intertwined in early twentieth-century South Asia.

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My path here has been anything but linear, and I love that about it. I trained as a Kathak dancer for nearly 20 years, which taught me to think through the body long before I thought to write about it. I later worked as an art curator for one of India’s leading online art aggregators, and along the way I moved to research and academia. I have been building an archive of Indian Jewish women in Indian cinema—a project close to my heart that bridges so many of my interests. My dissertation draws on all these threads: archival research, oral history interviews, and visual analysis, woven together with what I’ve learned as a performer, curator, and archivist.

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Beyond my research, I’m passionate about teaching and community-building—I see both as extensions of the same work: helping people find and tell stories that matter.

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At OSU, I’m excited to be working across the Department of Dance, the Department of Near Eastern and South Asian Languages and Cultures (NESA), and the Melton Center for Jewish Studies, continuing to expand on performance history, Jewish and South Asian diasporic studies, and feminist archival practice.

I’d love to connect—whether you’re curious about Kathak, Bollywood’s hidden Jewish history, classroom collaboration, or just want to talk about archives and storytelling!