Aninhalli Vasavi facts for kids

Prof. Aninhalli R. Vasavi, also known as A.R. Vasavi, is a social anthropologist and an independent researcher from Bengaluru, India. She studies how people live in different societies. Her main interests are farming communities, Indian society, and education.

She earned her Master's degrees in Sociology from the University of Delhi. Later, she received her PhD in Social Anthropology from Michigan State University in 1993. Her PhD research was about how people in Bijapur, India, dealt with drought. She has worked at important places like the Indian Institute of Management – Ahmedabad and the National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS) in Bengaluru.

Her Life and Work

Prof. Vasavi studied Sociology at Stella Maris College, Chennai. She then continued her studies at the University of Delhi. After that, she went to Michigan State University in the USA for her PhD.

From 1997 to 2011, she was a faculty member at the National Institute of Advanced Studies in Bangalore. She also taught at the Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode and was a visiting professor at Tufts University in the USA.

Helping Rural Youth

Today, Prof. Vasavi works with the Punarchith Collective. This is a special learning place for young people in rural areas of Chamarajanagar, Karnataka. It offers them different ways to learn and grow.

Supporting Education for All

She also helped start the Centre for Research and Education in Social Transformation (CREST). This institute in Kozhikode, Kerala, helps students from specific communities get a good education.

Sharing Her Ideas

Prof. Vasavi writes for many academic journals and books. Her work helps people understand important social issues in India. She left NIAS in 2011 to focus on her own research and to help build Punarchith.

Her Important Research

Prof. Vasavi has done research in several key areas. She looks at how farming and the environment are connected. Her book, Harbingers of Rain, explores this topic.

Understanding Farmers' Challenges

She has also studied the difficulties faced by farmers in rural India. Her research shows how modern farming methods can sometimes make life very hard for farmers. It highlights the social problems that go beyond just money issues or dry weather.

Improving Education

Prof. Vasavi's research on primary education is very insightful. She studies how schools, teachers, and children are connected to society and how they are managed. Her ideas about "school differentiation" have been used in important reports for governments and international groups.

Looking at the IT World

She has also studied the information technology (IT) industry in India. She co-edited a book called In an Outpost of the Global Economy. She also helped produce a documentary series about the IT industry in Bengaluru called Coding Culture.

Connecting Cultures

Prof. Vasavi helps connect Indian writers with social science ideas from other parts of the world. She has edited books that translate important Kannada writings about society and culture.

Key Books She Has Written

• Harbingers of Rain: Land and Life in South India (Oxford University Press, 1999)
• In an Outpost of the Global Economy (Co-edited with Carol Upadhya) (Routledge, 2008)
• Inner Mirror: Translation of Kannada Writings on Society and Culture (The Book Review Press, 2009)
• Volagannadi (Kannada Version) (Kannada University Press, 2011)