Susan Visvanathan

Susan Visvanathan Biography

Susan Visvanathan is an Indian sociologist, social anthropologist and a fiction writer. She is well known for her writings on religious dialogue and sociology of religion. Her first book "Christians of Kerala:History, Belief and Ritual among the Yakoba" (non-fiction) is regarded as a milestone work in the field of sociology of religion. Something Barely Remembered – collection of short stories, The Visiting Moon, Phosphorus and Stone, Seine at Noon and Nelycinda and Other Stories are her published fiction works. Non-fiction works are Friendship, Interiority and Mysticism: Essays in Dialogue, Structure and Transformation: Theory and Society in India, Missionary Styles and the Problem of Dialogue, Culture and Society, Children of Nature: The Life and Legacy of Ramana Maharshi, An Ethnography of Mysticism: The journeys of a French Monk in India and Reading Marx, Weber and Durkheim Today. She has also published and edited several columns for journals.

Susan Visvanathan studied at Delhi University and Jawaharlal Nehru University. She took MA in literature from Jawaharlal Nehru University and M. Phil and PhD from Delhi University. Later she started her career as a lecturer and has been in this filed since 1983. Apart from teaching, she does research works and publish them as articles and books as well. Her first book "Christians of Kerala: History, Belief and Ritual among the Yakoba" is regarded as her masterpiece and outstanding efforts towards field of sociology of religion.

She has worked in Centre for the Study of Social Systems, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi and Sr Lecturer and Head of Department from 1989 to 1997, Hindu College of Delhi University. She teaches Sociology of Religion, Historical Anthropology, Classical Social Theory and gender studies. Throughout her career she has received numerous awards and honours for her outstanding contributions to the field of sociology and teaching.  She has also served as the Member of Board of Studies of several foreign universities and educational institutions.

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Updated: December 24, 2013