Floor/room: 01.21
Education
2024
Ph.D. | Centre for Religious Studies, Ruhr University Bochum, Germany
Dissertation title: Transcending Boundaries: Sacred Spaces in Premodern
and Early Modern Malabar, South India
2016
M.A. | Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, India
History
2014
B.A. (Honours) | Miranda House, University of Delhi, India
History
Professional Development & Other Academic Training
2025
Workshop (8 credits toward NRW-Zertifikat Hochschuldidaktik),
University of Paderborn (ongoing) Diversity in Teaching: Gender &
Diversity-Sensitive Approaches for Higher Level Education
2025
Specialization Course | University of Colorado Boulder [Online]
The Teacher and Social and Emotional Learning (SEL)
2025
Certificate Course | University of Glasgow, UK [Online]
Diversity and Inclusion in Education
2025
Certificate Course | Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain [Online]
Social Pedagogy across Europe
2025
Specialization Course | Rice University, USA [Online]
Organizational Leadership in Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
2017
Summer University | Central European University, Budapest, Hungary
Jews & Christians between the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean:
Co-existence & Conflict
2015
Summer School | University of Exeter, UK
King Arthur: Investigating the Myth & the Legend
2014
Summer School | King’s College London, UK
Media, Gender & Culture
2013
Training | India National Trust for Art & Cultural Heritage (INTACH), Delhi
Heritage Education Programme
Work Experience
Aug 2024–present
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Transcultural Studies Program | Institute for Cultural Studies
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf
Oct 2023–July 2024
Guest Lecturer
Transcultural Studies Program | Institute of Art History
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf
Oct 2018–Sep 2022
DAAD Doctoral Research Fellow
Centre for Religious Studies | Ruhr University Bochum
June 2017–May 2018
Curriculum Developer & Teacher
Poornodaya Vidyanikethan (a pioneer Waldorf-inspired institute), Kerala, India
Other Work Experience (Selected)
July 2025–Sep 2025
Advisor | thyssenkrupp nucera, Dortmund
Conceptualization and creation of an e-learning course on ‘Transculturality’ for
internal team communication, training, and exchange
Nov 2019–June 2024
Academic Reviewer (Grant Applications)
Research School Plus | Ruhr University Bochum, Germany
May 2013–July 2013
Intern | Global Community Development Program, Cairo, Egypt
Association Internationale des Étudiants en Sciences Économiques et
Commerciales (AIESEC) and Entrepreneurial Action and Us (ENACTUS)
2026
Guest Lecture at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Germany | 21 January (forthcoming)
Course: VL Phänomene der Transkulturalität (Instructor: Dr. Franziska Koch)
Title: Who Owns a Tradition? Questioning Cultural Boundaries in Architecture
2025
European Conference for South Asian Studies (ECSAS), University of Heidelberg, Germany | 1-4 October (forthcoming)
Paper: Reconceptualizing the Archive: Religious Buildings as Transcultural (Counter) Archives [co-presented with Dr. Shraddha Bhatawadekar]
2025
Connecting Courts and Coasts: Trade, Knowledge, and Cultural Networks in the Western Indian Ocean (From Post-Classical India to the Late Mughal Era),
University of Liège, Belgium | 27-28 June
Paper: Rethinking Religious Architecture in Malabar: Toward a Decolonised Architectural Historiography
2024
Public Lecture (Invited) at Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany | 11 December
Title: Converging Traditions: Dynamics of Architectural Practices in Early Modern Malabar
2024
European Association of Archaeologists (EAA) Annual Meeting, Rome, Italy | 28–31 August
Paper: Beyond East vs. West: Exploring the Dynamics of Architectural Practices in Malabar, ca. 15th–17th Centuries
2023
Public Lecture (Invited) at the University of Glasgow, UK | 2 November
Title: Malabar’s Architectural Tapestry: Navigating Historical Traditions of Building
2023
European Conference for South Asian Studies (ECSAS), University of Turin, Italy | 26-29 July
Paper: Transcultural Building Traditions: Early Modern Transformations in South India
2023
European Association for Jewish Studies Congress (EAJS), Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main | 16-20 July
Paper: Transcultural Traditions of Building: Early Modern Synagogues of Malabar, South India
2022
Guest Lecture (Invited) at the University of Glasgow, UK | 8 February
Department of Theology and Religious Studies | Course: Religion and Trade in Premodern Asia
Title: Contextualising Building Traditions: Sacred Spaces in Malabar
2021
Guest Lecture at Ruhr University Bochum , Germany | 9 June
Centre for Religious Studies | Course: Past and Present Discourses on Religion and Media in South Asian Traditions
Title: From Categories to Categorical Acceptance: (Re)presenting Architecture in Kerala
2021
Guest Talk at the University of Bonn, Germany | 25 January
Department for Asian and Islamic Art History, Institute for Oriental and Asian Studies
Paper: Symbiotic Sacred Spaces
2020
Indian Ocean World Archaeology Conference, University of Exeter, UK | 10-11 January
Paper: Placing Kerala within the Indian Ocean World: Investigating Transcultural Sacred Spaces
2019
Discourses and Practices of Space Sharing, Humboldt University, Berlin | 5-7 December
Paper: Translating Sacred Spaces: An indexical study of premodern and early modern Kerala, South India
2019
Images in Religious Persuasion: A Cross-Cultural Perspective, Centre for Religious Studies, Ruhr University Bochum | 1-2 October
Paper: Boundaries as Bridges: Interreligious Encounters in Premodern and Early Modern Kerala, South India
2019
Jewish-Christian Relations from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean: Evidence from Material Culture,
Centre for Religious Studies, Ruhr University Bochum | 26-28 March
Paper: Entangled Identities: Investigating “Jewish-Christian” Sacred Spaces vis-à-vis that of the Contemporary Religious Communities in Early Modern Kerala, South India
Talks & Working-Research Presentations
2025
Doctoral and Research Colloquium, Transcultural Studies Program, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf | 11 July
Paper: Rethinking Religious Architecture in Malabar through a Transcultural Lens
2022
CERES Research Colloquium, Ruhr University Bochum | 20 June
Paper: Contextualising Mosques, Churches, and Synagogues in Malabar
2022
‘Transculturality’ in Humanities and Social Sciences, Academic Workshop at CERES Early Career Researchers Program, Ruhr University Bochum | 30 March
Paper: Technologies and Motifs in 16th century Kerala: Preliminary Observations
2021
International DAAD Interdisciplinary Colloquium, Fachhochschule Dortmund, University of Applied Sciences and Arts in collaboration with DAAD Freundeskreis | 10 June
Paper: Translating Sacred Spaces in premodern and early modern Kerala (South India)
2021
CERES Research Colloquium, Ruhr University Bochum | 18 January
Paper: Symbiotic Sacred Spaces: An Indexical Study of Premodern Malabar
2019
Material Culture, Academic Workshop at CERES Early Career Researchers Program, Ruhr University Bochum | 19 September
Paper: Material Culture: an Introduction
2019
CERES Research Colloquium, Ruhr University Bochum | 23 May
Paper: Transcending Boundaries: Material Culture of Sacred Spaces in Premodern and Early Modern Kerala, South India
Academic Services
Workshops & Panels Organized
2024
Europe-South Asia Relations in the Medieval and Modern Periods
Conference Panel in the 30th European Association of Archaeologists (EAA) Annual Meeting, Rome, Italy, 28-31 August
[with Dr. Sophie Hüglin (Eberhard Karls University, Tübingen), Dr. Sila Tripati (CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography, Goa),
and Dr. Mark W. Hauser (Northwestern University, Illinois)]
2024
South Asia & the Indian Ocean World: Cultural Confluences
Conference Panel in the International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds, UK, 1-4 July
2022
‘Transculturality’ in Humanities and Social Sciences
Academic workshop at CERES Early Career Researchers Program, Ruhr University Bochum | 30 March
2019
Material Culture
Academic Workshop at CERES Early Career Researchers Program, Ruhr University Bochum, 19 September
2019
Building Research Databases | Image Cataloguing Software Tropy
Academic workshop at CERES Computer Café Series, Ruhr University Bochum (with Dr. Frederik Elwart), 10 July
Services as Chair, Moderator, or Discussant
2025
Thinking Futures in Asia: The International Conference of the DGA’s Young Scholars’ Group, University of Leipzig, Germany | 9-11 May
Chair & Discussant in Panel: Spatial Transformations
2024
International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds, UK | 1-4 July
Moderator in Panel: South Asia & the Indian Ocean World: Cultural Confluences
2019
Decolonising National and Religious Culture: New Perspectives on Russia’s Imperial History and Heritage, Ruhr University Bochum | 17-18 October
Chair & Moderator in Panel: Adapting Religion and Colonialism in the Plural
2019
Mathurā: the Archaeology of Inter-Religious Encounters in Ancient India, Ruhr University Bochum | 25-26 July
Chair & Moderator in Panel: Visual & Textual Descriptions of Gods
Memberships & Networks
European Association for South Asian Studies (EASAS)
European Association of Archaeologists (EAA)
Association of Critical Heritage Studies (ACHS)
H-Net Network on Asian Studies and History (H-Asia)
Decolonial International Network (DIN)
Exeter University Alumni Network
DAAD Alumni Network
Full Scholarship for Doctoral Research in Germany | 2018–2022
German Academic Exchange Services (DAAD)
Field Research Grant | 2020
German Academic Exchange Services (DAAD)
Travel & Stay Grants (descending order)
Funded by: University of Liège, Belgium (2025); German Association for Asian Studies (2025);
Friedrich Schiller University, Jena (2024); Oscar Montelius Foundation, European Association of Archaeologists (2024);
University of Glasgow, UK (2023); German Academic Exchange Services (2023); European Association for Jewish Studies (2023);
German Academic Exchange Services (2020); Humboldt University Berlin (2019)
Scholarship for German Language Intensive Course | 2018
German Academic Exchange Services (DAAD)
SUN International University Grant | 2017
Funded by Central European University, Budapest & the European Association for Jewish Studies (EAJS)
Inter-College Paper Presentation Competition | 2014, 2013, and 2012
Three-time consecutive winner at TARIKH Annual Festival, Department of History, Miranda House, University of Delhi
Best Student Award | 2010
Gurukul Grammar Senior Secondary School, Assam, India
Anundoram Borooah Award for Merit | 2009
Conferred by the Government of Assam, India
forthcoming
The Liquid Continent: Materialities in the Indian Ocean (500–1800 CE), Palgrave Macmillan (coedited with Serena Autiero).
forthcoming
Approaching Historical Religious Architecture in Malabar: Reconsidering Frameworks of Inquiry. Higher Education for the Future.
2024
Transcending Boundaries: Sacred Spaces in Premodern and Early Modern Malabar, South India, Bochum: Ruhr University Bochum [Open Access] DOI: doi.org/10.13154/294-12689
2024
Entangled Identities: Approaching Sacred Spaces of Premodern Kerala, South India. In Bar Kribus, Zaroui Pogossian & Alexandra Cuffel (eds.)
Material Encounters between Jews and Christians: From the Silk and Spice Routes to the Highlands of Ethiopia, Leeds: Arc Humanities Press, pp. 251–276.
2023
Renny Thomas, Science and Religion in India. Beyond Disenchantment. In Zeitschrift für junge Religionswissenschaft [Open Access], Vol. 18, DOI: doi.org/10.4000/zjr.2420
2022
Symbiotic Sacred Spaces: an indexical study of premodern Malabar. In Himanshu Prabha Ray, Salila Kulshreshtha & Uthara Suvrathan (eds.)
The Routledge Handbook of Hindu Temples: Materiality, Social History and Practice, London/New York: Routledge, pp. 407–432.
2020
Christianity in the First Five Centuries of its Existence: An Overview. In Hekamtho Syrian Orthodox Theological Journal, Vol. 5(2), pp. 62–73.
2019
Soldier, Priest, and God: A Life of Alexander the Great by F. S. Naiden. In Journal of Religion in Europe, Vol. 12(2), pp. 220–222.
2019
Sacred yet Shared Traditions in Kerala, South India: Illuminated neither by Candles nor by Diyas, but by a Nilavilakku.
In Marginalia. Religionswissenschaftliche Randbemerkungen [Online]. URL: marginalie.hypotheses.org/1295;
Theories of Transculturality | Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf
Mandatory undergraduate seminar course, recurrent every Summer Semester.
Phenomena of Transculturality | Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf
Mandatory undergraduate seminar course, recurrent every Winter Semester.
Understanding Transculturality: Navigating Cross-Cultural Processes | Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf
Open to both undergraduate and postgraduate students. Recurrent every Winter Semester.
Past and Present Discourses on Religion and Media in South Asian Traditions | Centre for Religious Studies, Ruhr University Bochum
Open to both undergraduate and postgraduate students. Co-taught with Jun.-Prof. Dr. Jessie Pons (CERES, Ruhr University Bochum), in Summer Semester 2021