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Kristin C. Bloomer
Assistant Professor
Department of Religion, Carleton College
One North College Street
Northfield, MN 55057
work: (507) 222-5734 cell: (303) 704-0851
[email protected]
EDUCATION
University of Chicago, The Divinity School, Chicago, Illinois.
Doctor of Philosophy: Theology and History of Religions, Summer 2008.
Dissertation: “Making Mary: Hinduism, Catholicism and Spirit Possession in
Contemporary Tamil Nadu, South India.”
Co-chairs:
Wendy Doniger, Mircea Eliade Distinguished Service Professor of the History of
Religions, University of Chicago Divinity School.
Kathryn Tanner, Dorothy Grant Maclear Professor of Theology, University of
Chicago Divinity School.
Master of Arts in Divinity, Spring 2000.
University of Montana, Missoula, Montana, December 1993.
Master of Fine Arts, Creative Writing/Non-Fiction.
Cambridge University, King's College, Cambridge, U.K.
Bachelor of Arts, 1991.
Master of Arts, 1996; Theological and Religious Studies.
Exams: The Study of Religion; Self and Salvation in Indian and Western Thought;
Religion, Ritual, and Ideology (Social Anthropology); Modern Theology; Philosophical
Theology; Greek.
Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, May 1989.
Bachelor of Arts, English; Phi Beta Kappa.
TEACHING
Carleton College, Department of Religion, Northfield, MN.
Assistant Professor, September 2010 to present.
Courses: Women and Religion: India and Abroad; Religions of South Asia;
Understanding Religion; Introduction to Christianity; Christianity and Colonialism;
Colonialism and Christianity in the “Global South;” Many Marys; Saints, Goddesses
and Whores: Women and Gender in Hinduism and Christianity; The Sacred Body;
Introduction to Women’s and Gender Studies; Spirit Possession (senior seminar);
Feminist Theory; Yoga: History, Theory, and Practice; Tamil Language Study
(Independent studies).
Other Teaching Duties: Senior Comprehensive Exams Reader/Advisor; Mentor for
Mellon-Mays Undergraduate Fellowship applicants.
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Harvard University, The Divinity School, Cambridge, MA.
Visiting Assistant Professor of Women’s Studies and South Asian Religions, 2012-13.
Course: Altered States: Spirit Possession, Modernity, and Other Dangerous Crossings
(graduate-level).
The University of Hawaii at Manoa, Department of Religion, Honolulu, HI.
Assistant Professor, August 2008-2010. Tenure-track. Taught undergraduate and
graduate students.
Courses: Undergraduate courses: Understanding Christianity, The Study of Religion,
Women and Religion, Field Methods in Religion. Graduate courses: History and
Theory of the Study of Religion, Practicum in Field Research in Religion, Spirit
Possession, Thesis Research, Tamil Language (Independent Study). Interim Lecturer:
Graduate Seminar on South Asian Religions.
University of Chicago, The Divinity School, Chicago, IL.
Invited Lecturer, Winter 2008
“The Ethnography of Lived Religion: Animism, Polytheism, Humanity”
Loyola University, Theology Department, Chicago, IL.
Lecturer, Spring 2007.
“Women and Religion: India and Abroad”
University of Chicago, The Divinity School, Chicago, IL.
Teaching Assistant, Autumn 2002.
“Translating God(s): Models and Methods in Comparative Theology”
University of Montana, English Department, Missoula, MT.
Teaching Fellow, September 1991-June 1993.
English Composition
TEACHING COMPETENCIES
Theories and Methods in the Study of Religion; Religions of South Asia; Hinduism;
Global Christianities; History of Christianity; “World” Religions; Women and Religion;
Ethnography of Religion; Field Work Methods; Religion and the Body; Spirit Possession;
Feminist Theory; Ritual Theory; History of Christian Thought; Modern Theology;
Liberation Theology; Comparative Theology; Religion and Globalization; Christianity
and Colonialism; Critical Theory; Anthropology of Religion; Tamil Language, Culture,
and Poetics; Religion and Literature.
ACADEMIC PUBLICATIONS
Book:
Possessed by a Virgin: Hinduism, Catholicism, and the Virgin Mary in South India. New York:
Oxford University Press (under review).
Peer-Reviewed Articles:
“Comparative Theology, Comparative Religion, and Hindu-Christian Studies:
Ethnography as Method.” Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies. Vol. 21. 2008.
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Invited Articles:
“Notes From the Field: Retrieving the Dead.” The Martin Marty Center for Religion and
Culture Web Forum.
http://divinity.uchicago.edu/sites/default/files/imce/pdfs/webforum/022005/comm
entary.shtml. Chicago: University of Chicago, February 2005.
Book Reviews:
“Fertile Disorder: Spirit Possession and Its Provocation of the Modern,” by Kalpana
Ram. (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2013.) Anthropos, forthcoming 2015.
“Global Icons: Apertures to the Popular,” by Bishnupriya Ghosh. (Durham and London:
Duke University Press, 2011.) International Journal of Hindu Studies, forthcoming 2015.
“The History of Christianity in India: From Beginnings to the Present,” by Robert E.
Frykenberg. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008.) Journal of Hindu-Christian
Studies, Vol. 22, 2009.
“Converting Women: Gender and Protestant Christianity in Colonial South India,” by
Eliza F. Kent. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.) Anglican Theological Review,
April 2007.
“The Riddle of Sadhu Sundar Singh,” by Eric J. Sharpe. (New Delhi: Intercultural
Publications, 2004.) Journal of Religion, Vol. 86, Issue 1, 2006. pp. 718-719.
“The Lost Land of Lamuria: Fabulous Geographies, Catastrophic Histories,” by Sumathi
Ramaswamy. (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2004.) Journal of
Asian Studies. Association for Asian Studies. Vol. 64, No. 3. August 2005. pp. 787-789.
"At the Feet of the Goddess: The Divine Feminine in Local Hindu Religion," by Lynn
Foulston. (Brighton: Sussex Academic Press, 2002.) Journal of Religion. Vol 85, Issue 1, Jan.
2005. pp. 162-163.
CONFERENCE PAPERS AND INVITED LECTURES
Invited lecture. “Marian Possession in India: the Last Decade.” Concordia College,
Moorhead, MN. April, 2015.
Conference paper. “Land, Gendered Space, and Spirit Possession in South India,” paper
delivered for a special joint panel of the Feminist Theory and Religious Reflection Group
and Indigenous Religious Traditions Group, “Edgy Indigeneity: Transgender, Altered
States, and Willful Elisions.” American Academy of Religion, San Diego, CA, Nov. 24,
2014.
Invited panelist. “Discussion of The Saint and the Banyan Tree, Winner of the SHCS Book
Award,” American Academy of Religion, San Diego, CA, Nov. 21, 2014.
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Conference paper. “Urban and Rural, Real and Imagined: Marian Spirit Possession in
Chennai and Rural Sivagangai District, Tamil Nadu,” Conference on the Study of
Religions in India, Butler University, Indianapolis, Indiana, June 28, 2014.
Invited paper. “Ritual Contestation and Failure: Marian Spirit Possession in South
India,” American Ethnological Society Conference, Chicago, Illinois, April 12, 2013.
Invited speaker. “Studying Religions in the Minority: Christianity in India,” Center for
the Study of World Religions,” Harvard University, April 10, 2013.
Invited lecture. “Mary (Speaks Back) in India: What does ethnographic material say to
comparative theology?” Harvard University, Comparative Theology Seminar, Center for
the Study of World Religions, Cambridge, MA, February 22, 2013.
Invited lecture. “Mary, Munis, and Other Mischievous Spirits: Possession and Healing in
a Roman Catholic, Dalit, Indian Village,” Harvard University, Hindu Studies
Colloquium, Cambridge, MA, February 21, 2013.
Invited public lecture. “Possessed by a Goddess: The Virgin Mary in South India,”
McGill University, Religious Studies, Montreal, Canada, January 11, 2013.
Public lecture. “Possessed by Mary: Hinduism, Roman Catholicism, and Spirit
Possession in Tamil Nadu, South India,” Women’s Studies in Religion Program Lecture
Series, Harvard University, The Divinity School, Cambridge, MA, November 1, 2013.
Conference paper. “Ritual as Text, Text as Ritual: the Poetics of Possession in South
India,” European Conference for South Asian Studies, Lisbon, Portugal, July 2012.
Conference paper. “Ethnographic Engagements Across Time: Reflections on the Ethics
of Fieldwork and Writing,” as part of a panel with Joyce Burkhalter Flueckiger, Emory
University; Ann Grodzins Gold, Syracuse University; Kirin Narayan, University of
Wisconsin; and Leela Prasad, Duke University. Annual Conference on South Asia,
University of Wisconsin-Madison, October, 2012.
Invited lecture. “Making Mary: Hinduism, Roman Catholicism, and Marian Spirit
Possession in Tamil Nadu, South India,” Blake Lecture Series, Virginia Commonwealth
University, Department of History, February 2012.
Conference paper. “Tamil Tropes, Modern Selves: The Poetics of Possession in Urban,
Christian Tamil Nadu,” Annual Conference on South Asia, University of WisconsinMadison, October 2011.
Conference paper presenter and panel organizer. “Altered States: Spirit Possession,
Modernity, and Other Dangerous Crossings in India,” at joint conference of the
Association of Asian Studies and International Convention of Asia Scholars, Honolulu,
HI, March 31-April 3, 2011.
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Conference paper. “Processions, Possession, and Authority: Re-enactments and
Reversals in Contemporary Tamil Nadu, South India,” Annual Conference on South
Asia, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, October 16, 2010.
Invited lecture. “Vessels of Bounty,” Spring 2010 Colloquium Series presented by the
Women’s Studies Program, co-sponsored by the Political Science Department, February,
2010.
Invited panelist. “Author Meets Critics: Webb Keane’s Christian Moderns: Freedom and
Fetish in the Mission Encounter,” Special Session, History of Christianity Section,
American Academy of Religion Annual Conference, Montreal, QC, Nov. 7, 2009.
Conference paper. “S-potting the Goddess: South Indian Hindu and Christian Ritual
Performances,” University of Wisconsin-Madison, Annual Conference on South Asia,
Oct. 24, 2009.
Invited lecture. “Embodied Local Theologies: Maataa, Mary, and other subversive spirits
in south India,” Culturing Theologies, Theologizing Cultures: Exploring the Worlds of
Religion Conference, The University of Chicago, April 2009.
Conference paper. “Two Cases of Marian Spirit Possession: Syncretic-Somatic
Semantics,” History of Christianity Section, American Academy of Religion, Chicago, IL,
November 2008.
Conference paper. “O Mother: Complicating Indian Christian Identities,” Anthropology
of Religion Group and Society for Hindu-Christian Studies, American Academy of
Religion, Chicago, IL, November 2008.
Conference paper. “Ethnography and Hindu-Christian Studies.” Society for HinduChristian Studies, SHCS Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA, Nov. 16, 2007.
Conference paper. “Being Saved and Getting ‘Saved’: Questions of Conversion and
Hybridity after the 2004 Asian Tsunami,” Comparative Religions Section, American
Academy of Religion, San Diego, CA. Nov. 19, 2007.
Conference paper. “Maataa Shakti: Embodying Mary as Divine Feminine in Tamil
Nadu,” Annual Conference on the Study of Religions of India, Albion College, Albion,
MI, Sept. 2007.
Conference paper. “Talking in Tongues, Talking in Tamil: Alternate Voices in the Study
of Religion.” Fourth Annual South Asia Graduate Student Conference. South Asian
Languages and Civilizations, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL. April 7, 2007.
Invited lecture. “Faith and Failure: Hindus and Christians of Velankanni a Year after the
Tsunami.” Department of Philosophy and Religion. Colgate University, Syracuse, NY.
March 22, 2006.
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Invited panelist. “The New Our Bodies, Ourselves and Global Feminisms: Challenges,
Strategies, Practices.” 10th Annual International Women and Health Meeting, New
Delhi, India. Sept. 24, 2005.
PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES
Invited participant and panelist. The Wabash Center’s University of Chicago Teaching
Initiative Gathering. The University of Chicago, April 11-12, 2013.
Speaker. “Understanding the Religious Mind: Meditating Monks, Mother Mary, and the
Limits of Inquiry,” Dialogos Presentation with Roger R. Jackson, Humanities Center
Faculty Seminar, “Dimensions of Mind,” Carleton College, February 5, 2013.
Speaker. “Subjectivity and Anthropology,” for the “World Religions Café,” Center for
the Study of World Religions. Harvard University, September 5, 2012.
Organizer. The Berry Lecture in Christianity and Rama Watumull Collaborative Lecture
Series. Lecture and Colloquium with Kalpana Ram, Macquarie University, Sydney,
Australia. Funded by the Department of Religion and the Center for South Asian
Studies, co-sponsored by the Department of Anthropology and Women’s Studies.
University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI, April 2009.
Assessment Plan Coordinator, Department of Religion, University of Hawaii at Manoa,
Honolulu, HI, 2008-2010.
Paper presenter. “Ethnography, Spirit Possession, and Feminist Theory.” Feminist
Theories and the Study of Religion Workshop. Divinity School. April 23, 2007.
University of Chicago, Chicago, IL.
Paper presenter. “Being Maataa: Women and Living Catholicism in Tamil Nadu.” Feb.
20, 2007. Center for Gender Studies Workshop. University of Chicago, Chicago, IL.
Official Rapporteur. Tenth Annual International Women and Health Meeting, New
Delhi, India. September 20-25, 2005.
Participant. Women’s Studies in India Conference. Goa, India. May 2005.
SERVICE TO THE COLLEGE
ACM India Programs Representative. Annual meeting in Chicago. March 6, 2015.
Host and Organizer. Rose Berger, writer, activist and senior associate editor for
Sojourners magazine, based in Washington, DC. Free public lecture and class visit. March
3, 2015.
Guest Speaker. “Body Positivity.” Invited by students to be the faculty representative on
this five-person panel for student-run event. January, 2015.
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Guest Speaker. “Pathways to the Humanities Panel,” Learning and Teaching Center.
One of six professors (English, Philosophy, Religion, History, Classics and European
Studies departments) who discussed graduate school and career experience with majors
and potential majors, Carleton College, April 2014.
Host and Organizer. 2014 Lindesmith Lecturer Wendy Doniger, Mircea Eliade
Distinguished Service Professor of the History of Religions at the University of Chicago
Divinity School, for a student/faculty discussion group and public lecture: “Freedom of
Speech in India, from the Vedas to the Present,” May 8, 2014.
Host and Organizer. Kiawekupono O Ka Ua, an award-winning, male hula halau
(“school”) from O’ahu, Hawaii, for a week long residency: free master dance classes;
guided excursions in the College Arboretum with Arb Director and field guides; class
visits in and beyond my own classroom; and performances in Weitz Center (Spring
2012, Winter 2014).
Affiliated faculty. Women and Gender Studies. 2010-present. Regularly attended
meetings; taught many course electives; developed core course, “Feminist Theory”
(Winter 2016).
Affiliated faculty. Asian Studies, 2010-present. Regularly attended meetings; worked to
develop a South Asian Studies concentration; taught many courses tagged as electives.
Committee Member. Distinguished Women Visitors Fund, Carleton College. 2013-2016.
Committee Member. LGBT Committee. Carleton College, 2011-2012.
FIELD WORK AND RESEARCH TRAVEL
I have lived for a total of three years in Tamil Nadu, south India. I conducted the bulk of
my field work in the summer of 2001 in Madurai on an American Institute of Indian
Studies (AIIS) Language Fellowship, and from 2004 to 2006, in Chennai and in southern
Tamil Nadu on a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation and Research Abroad Fellowship
and an AIIS Junior Research Fellowship. I made two more, month-long trips to the field
in July 2010 and November 2012, on research grants from the NEH and from Harvard
University. I work within the interpretive tradition of anthropology, through formal and
informal interviews and participant observation. I have also participated in and spoken
at a number of conferences in India, and have traveled extensively throughout the
country. I participated in recovery after the 2004 Asian Tsunami, which I witnessed and
wrote about as an activist/researcher.
For three summers prior to that two-year stint, I studied Tamil intensively in Tamil
Nadu, South India, via the French Institute of Pondicherry (1999), and American
Institute of Indian Studies, Madurai (2000 and 2001).
FELLOWSHIPS AND GRANTS
Global Engagement Initiative Grant, Carleton College, Summer and Fall 2014.
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ACLS Fellow, 2013-14.
Research Associate, Women’s Studies in Religion Program, Harvard University, 201213.
Resident Fellow, Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard University, 201213.
Large Faculty Development Endowment and Class of 1949 Endowed Fund for Faculty
Development, Carleton College, 2011-2012, for a year of junior sabbatical research
leave. (Declined.)
Faculty Research Seminar, Humanities Center, Carleton College, “Dimensions of
Mind,” 2011-12; one of six faculty members chosen from across the disciplines.
Viz: Visualizing the Liberal Arts, Research and Curricular Grant through the Andrew
W. Mellon Foundation, Carleton College, 2011.
Woodrow Wilson Career Enhancement Fellowship, 2011-12, Honorable Mention.
University of Hawaii Endowment for the Humanities, 2009-2010, for research in India.
University of Hawaii Research Relations Fund, 2009-2010, for research in India.
Berry Lecture in Christianity Fund, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Department of
Religion, 2008-2009, to host visiting scholar for public lecture and seminar.
Rama Watamull Collaborative Lecture Series Grant, University of Hawaii at Manoa,
Center for South Asian Studies, 2008-2009, to host visiting scholar for lecture,
seminar.
Harper Dissertation Fellowship, University of Chicago, 2007-08; one of five fellows
university-wide.
Doolittle-Harrison Fellowship, University of Chicago, 2007.
Martin Marty Dissertation Writing Fellowship, Divinity School, University of Chicago,
2006-07; to support teaching and dissertation writing; one of sixteen fellows chosen.
Center for Gender Studies Residency Fellowship, University of Chicago, 2006-07, one
of three fellows chosen annually.
Committee on South Asian Studies Fellowship, University of Chicago, 2005-6, Summer
2008.
American Institute of Indian Studies Junior Fellowship, 2004-5.
Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship, 2003-4.
American Institute of Indian Studies Junior Fellowship, 2003-4. (Declined)
Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship (Tamil), University of Chicago, The
Divinity School, Summer 1999, 2000; AY 2000-3.
Full Tuition Scholarship, University of Chicago, The Divinity School, 1998-2000.
New England Associated Press News Executives Award, 1997, 1998.
Pushcart Prize Nominee, 1995, 1997.
Merriam-Frontier Award, for non-fiction, University of Montana, Missoula, 1993.
Academy of American Poets Award, Honorable Mention, 1993.
Full Teaching Fellowship, University of Montana, Missoula, 1991-93.
Keasbey Memorial Fellowship, full tuition scholarship and living stipend for two years’
study at King’s College, Cambridge University, 1989-1991.
Rhodes Scholarship Finalist, 1989.
Phi Beta Kappa, Wesleyan University, 1989.
THESIS COMMITTEE WORK
Bloomer, page 9 of 11
Outside Reader and Committee Member, Nicole Peterson, B.A. Departmental Honors
Thesis, “Gateway to the Goddess: Devotion to Kali in Cross-Cultural Perspective,”
Hamline University, St. Paul, MN, June 15, 2014.
Chair, Deeksha Sivakumar, M.A., “Bommai Kolu: Mothers and Daughters Assimilating
Modernity and Tradition in an Urban Context,” University of Hawaii, Summer, 2010.
Committee Member, Joshua Hevert, M.A., History, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI,
2010-11.
Committee Member, Nicole Berger, M.A., Anthropology, University of Hawaii,
Honolulu, HI, 2010-2011.
Committee Member, Cary Hitchcock, M.A., “Lord Jagganath in Puri,” University of
Hawaii, Summer 2010.
Committee Member, Jason Barthasius, M.A., “Buddhist-Christian Dialogue in Japan,”
University of Hawaii, December 2009.
NON-ACADEMIC WORK EXPERIENCE
Staff Writer/Editor, The Sunday Rutland Herald and Times Argus, Rutland, Vt., 1994-1998.
Sunday reporter and columnist for 32,000-circulation newspaper. Developed the paper’s
first-ever religion beat, and covered education, the environment, and poverty issues.
Wrote news, features and a weekly column, “In This State.” As Vermont Sunday Magazine
interim editor, oversaw production of 20 issues.
Freelance Writer, In These Times, San Francisco Chronicle, The Boston Globe, etc., 1997-98.
Staff Writer, Missoula Independent, September 1993-April 1994. Covered news, politics,
social issues, and the environment for Montana's only independent weekly.
Executive Director, Hellgate Writers, Missoula, Mont., 1993. Managed $50,000 budget
for the only literary arts center of the Inland Northwest. Organized writing workshops,
reading tours; wrote grants (NEA, NEH); promoted regional writers; wrote and edited
quarterly newsletter.
SELECTED NON-ACADEMIC PUBLICATIONS
Our Bodies, Ourselves. Chapter 10, Our Bodies, Ourselves: A New Edition for a New Era.
ed. Heather Stephenson, Judy Norsigian, Kiki Zeldes. New York: Simon & Schuster,
2005.
In These Times. "America's Newest Growth Industry: Private Prisons Leave Inmates at
the Mercy of the Bottom Line.'' Cover story. March 1997. Reproduced in multiple
publications with permission of the author.
Bloomer, page 10 of 11
Quarterly West, University of Utah, Spring/Summer 1997. "Stained Glass," non-fiction
essay weaving personal narrative with scholarly investigation of Mariology. Nominated
for Pushcart Prize.
“West of Wisdom,” in All This Was Meant to Burn (Missoula: University of Montana,
1993). Non-fiction essay chosen for chapbook publication by the University of Montana
Merriam-Frontier Award Committee, 1993. Nominated for Pushcart Prize.
Cambridge and Oxford Short Story Anthology. ed. Margaret Drabble. "Catching Father.”
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
PEER REVIEWER
American Ethnologist, Practical Matters, Columbia University Press, History of Religions
Journal.
CITED IN
Mosse, David. The Saint in the Banyan Tree: Christianity and Caste Society in India.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 2012.
Ram, Kalpana. Fertile Disorder: Spirit Possession and its Provocation of the Modern.
Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2013.
Davis, Angela. “Race, Gender, and Prison History: From the Convict Lease System to the
Supermax Prison,” in Prison Masculinities, edited by Donald F. Sabo, Terry Allen Kupers,
and Willie James London (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2001), 41.
MEDIA INTERVIEWS
Dutt, Ela. “The New Pope, New India, and Old Christianity,” News India Times USA,
Desi Talk, and The Indian American, March 23, 2013.
www.newsindia-times.com/NewsIndiaTimes/20130322/4712779047956941538.htm
Brachear, Manya A. “Questions of Faith Bound to Rise from Catastrophe,” Chicago
Tribune, December 31, 2004.
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2004-12-31/news/0412310253_1_harvard-divinityschool-buddhist-faith
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
Society for Hindu-Christian Studies (Board member, 2008-12)
American Academy of Religion
Association of Asian Studies
American Ethnological Society
Women and Gender Studies Program, Carleton College
Asian Studies Program, Carleton College
Center for South Asian Studies, University of Hawaii at Manoa (2008-2010)
Bloomer, page 11 of 11
Center for Women’s Studies, University of Hawaii at Manoa (2008-2010)
Madras Institute of Development Studies, Chennai, India (2004-2006, 2009-2010)
LANGUAGES
French (reading and spoken); German (reading knowledge); Tamil (classical,
contemporary, spoken and written).