Manleen Sandhu

Age: 23

Home Town: Richmond, VA

Education: B.A, Anthropology and Religious Studies, University of Virginia 2010

Specific Field Interests: formations of citizenship, nationhood and subjectivity in postcolonial South Asia, politics of difference, collective memory, migration.

Placement: Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, Punjab

Area of Focus: Education

Highlights: My passion lies in exploring the nature and implications of cross-border cultural connections in South Asia, specifically between India and Pakistan. In my undergraduate college career, the majority of my training in socio-cultural anthropology was centered on critical race theory, postmodernism, semiotics and South Asian historical recollections and popular culture. During that time, I developed an interest in studying religio-political agendas and identity reformulation and reinforcement in postcolonial South Asia, particularly in Indian and Pakistani Punjab. Since 2011, I have freelanced as a regional contributor for The Independent, an English Daily published out of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Additionally, I have worked as an SAT and GRE Prep Tutor and Lead Teacher for a major learning center chain in Virginia for over four years.