Vatsala Joshi, a student of MA-English at UoH selected for this programme
Queen’s University, Belfast, sponsors 8 Indian students, every year for their Irish Studies Summer School programme. This year Vatsala Joshi, a student of MA-English at the University of Hyderabad (UoH) has been selected for this programme.
These are full scholarships, with tuition, accommodation, and basic living expenses being covered, and a 600 pound contribution towards travel expenses. For one month, the selected students participate in an intensive research programme, studying issues related to post colonialism and its effects on Irish culture, as well as on the culture of their home countries. This year, the programme commences from 14th July to 8th August, 2014.
Vatsala’s research proposal was to study a folk festival, the Bangalore Karaga, as a space where marginalized sections of society inverted the power structure and assumed roles of power, even if temporarily; and how important this was as a site of contestation of established societal hierarchies.
Vatsala has always been interested in studying culture, both folk and popular. She is interested in the ways in which culture engenders and perpetuates ways of thinking, and the insidious ways these tropes have worked their way into people’s mindsets at large, via representations in popular culture like TV serials, advertisements, fantasy fiction, and so on. The impact of pop culture produced in India on Indian diaspora is an angle she is interested in exploring. Her other interests include non-mainstream folk culture, and children’s literature (including cartoons, comics, TV shows, and so on).
Vatsala can be reached on email: vatsalajoshi10@gmail.com