Faculty

Dhivya Janarthanan is an Associate Professor at the School of Liberal Studies, BML Munjal University. She is a sociologist and anthropologist with research interests in the anthropology of space; caste; higher education in India; and theory and method in the human and social sciences. Her publications have appeared in journals such as Contributions to Indian Sociology and Social Change. She has co-edited a special issue on anti-caste movements, resistance, and caste for Social Change. She is finalizing a book manuscript that examines the dynamicity and dialectics of social space and social relations in south India.

As a doctoral student at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Dhivya was a recipient of a Felix doctoral scholarship and a Charles Wallace India Trust grant. She studied for an MA in Sociology and an MPhil in Political Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

Dhivya previously taught at the Jindal Global Law School, O. P. Jindal Global University (2025–2026), the National Law School of India University, Bengaluru (2023–2025), and the Department of Sociology, University of Delhi (2016–2022). She was also Managing Editor, Social Change, the multidisciplinary journal sponsored by the Council for Social Development (2022–2023).

• Graduation In: BA in Sociology, Economics, and Industrial Relations
• Graduation From: Bangalore University
• Graduation Year: 1999

• Post Graduation In: MA in Sociology
• Post Graduation From: Jawaharlal Nehru University
• Post Graduation Year: 2001

• Doctorate In: PhD in Sociology and Social Anthropology
• Doctorate From: School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
• Doctorate Year: 2019

• Anti-Caste Movements, Resistance, and Caste: An Introduction. Social Change 54(2), 163–178 (2024, co-authored). https://doi.org/10.1177/00490857241255228 (Introduction to a special issue on ‘anti-caste movements, resistance, and caste,’ which asks what happens to our vantage on caste when we turn the focus to anti-caste movements and resistance to caste inequalities).
• Views from an Anti-Caste Movement: Caste, Labour, and Religion in Sangharsh. Social Change 54(2): 208–228, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1177/00490857241252695 (This article analyses an ethnographic film on anti-caste activists in Uttar Pradesh, North India. It examines the film’s interferences in standard global framings of caste and its cinematic argument on the links between caste, religion, and labour).
• Beyond Contiguity: Space, Caste, and Statues in Tamil Nadu. Contributions to Indian Sociology 56(2), 186–211 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1177/00699667221132586 (This article offers a relational approach to the study of caste relations, social space, and statues by focusing on the vandalism of a caste-iconic statue in Tamil Nadu, South India and the aftermath of the incident on a village and its caste groups).
• Learning and Everyday Life: Access, Participation, and Changing Practice, by Jean Lave. Anthropologica 64(2) (2022). https://doi.org/10.18357/anthropologica64220221828
  
  Book review: Kalpana Ram, Fertile Disorder: Spirit Possession and its Provocation of the Modern. Indian Journal of Gender Studies 26(1–2), 228–231 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1177/0971521518807995

• Assistant Director and Senior Fellow, Centre for Justice, Law and Society, Jindal Global Law School, O. P. Jindal Global University (2025–2026)
• Mentor, Writing Urban India, an initiative of the Urban Studies Foundation, UK (2025– )
• Faculty Board Member, Socio-Legal Review, National Law School of India University (2023–2025)
• Editorial Board Member, Law, Humanities and Social Sciences Journal, Maharashtra National Law University Mumbai (2024 onwards)
• Charles Wallace India Trust grant towards completion of doctoral study (2010)
• Felix Scholarship for PhD in Sociology and Social Anthropology, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London (2006–2009)
• Meenakshi Ammal Natesa Aiyyar and Rukhsana Hameedi medals, Distinction in Women’s Studies Certificate Course, Institute of Women’s Studies Lahore & Women and Media Collective, Colombo (2003)