Treading a New Path for First Generation Learners: Stories from the World

Moderator: Professor (Dr.) Gitanjali Surendran, Executive Director, Centre for Law and Humanities, Jindal Global Law School, O.P. Jindal Global University, India

Prof. (Dr.) Gitanjali Surendran Professor Jindal Global Law School. Gitanjali graduated from Lady Shri Ram College for Women in 2000 with a first class in BA (Hons) History. She completed an MA in modern Indian history from Jawaharlal Nehru University in 2002. She received a Commonwealth Scholarship to read modern history at Oxford University for another masters degree which she completed in 2003. She joined Harvard University for a Phd in history in 2006. Besides receiving awards for her teaching, she has received grants from various sources including the Weatherhead Centre for International Affairs, the South Asia Initiative and the Clive fellowship to complete her research. She was a Junior Research Fellow at the Nalanda-Sriwajaya Centre in Singapore in 2010. She was awarded the Phd for her dissertation ‘”The Indian Discovery of Buddhism”: Buddhist Revival in India, c1890-1960’ in 2013. She completed a monograph titled Anand Bhawan: An Intimate History for Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund in 2017 and is currently working on two other book projects – one based on her dissertation on modern Buddhism in India and the other a history of SPICMACAY.

Her research interests include modern South Asian cultural and intellectual history, environmental and gender history. She is also interested in public history and is exploring ways to bring academic history into public discourse. At JGLS, she has designed and taught basic courses on modern South Asian history as well as Indian legal and intellectual history.