Duke's own Leela Prasad has officially accepted the Fulbright-Nehru Fellowship. Leela will conduct ethnographic research in Maharashtra, India, a state that collaborates with NGOs to run a “Gandhi Study Program” in its prisons. Her goal is to study how ex-prisoners exposed to Gandhi’s writings during prison-time incorporate Gandhian principles and practices into their post-prison life. She plans to write a book that will explore how meaning is installed into being human at the margin, and how the figuration of Gandhi plays a role in shaping the “centers” and “margins” of society. Thus the project will arrive at a grounded understanding of concepts like imprisoned, free, reformed, and conviction that have special valences in a Gandhian moral lexicon but also a vibrant resonance in global linguistic and experiential registers.
Religious Studies