Dissertation Writing Scholarship Awarded
Vineet Gupta, a PhD candidate in the Graduate Department of Religion at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, has recently been awarded the IIS Dissertation Writing Scholarship. Gupta also holds a BA and MA in history from the University of Delhi and another master’s degree in South Asian Studies (majoring in history) from Heidelberg University.
The Dissertation Writing Scholarship is awarded to doctoral candidates researching a topic related to Ismaili studies. Gupta’s dissertation, titled The Dāʿī: Articulating Authority among Daʾudi Bohras of South Asia, explores a shift in the virtues of authority assigned to the dāʿī al-muṭlaq (the summoner with total authority) between the late-18th and early-20th centuries. Gupta uncovers the complex and plural foundations of the dāʿī’s authority, which is rooted both in the Fatimid and Tayyibi theological contexts and the local mercantile milieu of premodern Gujarat.
“I am deeply interested in understanding the processes of articulating authority in Islam,” Gupta writes. “I conceive authority as a dynamic process which is continually in the making, open to contestation, and circumscribed by the material conditions on the ground.” Gupta’s dissertation seeks to underscore a variety of strategies by which Muslim leaders established authority within the greater context of Islam’s diversity and South Asian trade. “Furthermore,” Gupta continues, “this project is the first attempt to map the colonial experiences of the Bohras.”
The IIS Dissertation writing scholarship opens annually for applications from graduate students in the field of Islamic Studies who are researching an Ismaili-related topic.
