sperangur@gmail.com | (908) 300-1048
Ph.D., Department for the Study of Religion, University of Toronto
Supervisors: Srilata Raman and Ajay Rao
M.A., Divinity School, University of Chicago
Areas: Religion, Literature, and Visual Culture; History of Religions
Sc.B., Classics (Honors) and Chemical Engineering, Brown University
Magna Cum Laude (highest honors)
Thesis Title: "Translating Tyāgarāja: The Sanskrit Songs of South India's Most Famous Classical Composer"
Demonology; Medieval Literature; Music, Performance, and Aesthetics; Disciplinary History; South Asia
History of the Field, Part 1 | Anand Venkatkrishnan
Term project forthcoming
Horror, Abjection, and the Monstrous Feminine | Hoda El Shakry
Term paper: "Demon or Deity?: Religion, Grotesqueness, and Hierarchy in Medieval Tamil Court Poetry"
Reading Religion in South Asia | Sarah Pierce Taylor
Term paper: "Pitch Perfect: Sacred Sound, Theory, and Normativity in Sanskrit Saṅgīta-śāstra"
Summer Funding Recipient, American Institute for Indian Studies
Excellence in the Arts Awardee, Somerset County Cultural and Heritage Commission ($500 scholarship)
Connaught International Scholarship Winner ($10,000 annual stipend)
Graduate Student Literary Translation Prize Winner (open to all UC grad students)
Anne B. Wedemeyer Fellowship Recipient, Divinity School (tuition fees + $10,000 annual stipend)
Summer Research and Travel Fellowship Awardee, Committee on Southern Asian Studies ($4,500)
Senior Thesis Prize Winner, Saxena Center for Contemporary South Asia, Watson Institute
Undergraduate Fellow, Saxena Center for Contemporary South Asia, Watson Institute ($5,000)
Undergraduate Teaching and Research Awardee ($1,400)
David Pingree Prize Winner, Department of Classics ($1,000)
Undergraduate Paper Prize Winner, Saxena Center for Contemporary South Asia, Watson Institute
SPRINT Grant Awardee ($2,000)
"Pitch Perfect: The Dynamics of Theory, Pedagogy, and Practice in Sangītaśāstra."
Presentation at the 235th Meeting of the American Oriental Society / American Society for Premodern Asia, Boston, MA, April 10, 2025.
"Music, Iconicity, and Emulation in South India."
Performance and presentation at Chicago Forum, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, February 13, 2025.
"Radiation Room" and "One-Minute Play from the Ether." Broken Antler Magazine.
"Civil Service." Uppagus.
"'Incarceration' and other poems." Literary Yard.
"Partition, 1947." Visions.
"Rāmāyaṇa Retold." Brown Classical Journal.
"Brown, by Apparition." Jet Fuel Review.*
*Nominated for Best of the Net 2023
Introductory Sanskrit Instructor for High School Student
Spoken and Basic Written Telugu Instructor for Elementary School Student
French and English Tutor for High School Rwandan Refugee Student
Transport and Biotransport Processes, Professor Ian Wong
Group and individual instructor for basic, intermediate, and advanced Carnatic violin and vocal students, both through Vittal Ramamurthy School of Music and as private teacher
President, Philosophy of Religions Club, Divinity School, University of Chicago
BONDS Peer Mentor, Divinity School, University of Chicago
Advisory Board Member, Divinity School, University of Chicago Forum for Free Inquiry and Expression
Student Representative, Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan (DIAP), Brown University
Editor, Classical Journal, Department of Classics, Brown University
Kannada Lexicon Copyeditor, Professor Gil Ben-Herut (through University of Chicago)
https://digitalroses.net/que/process.php?bookshelf-Sahitya8Vols
Research Assistant, Professor Finnian Moore-Gerety, Brown University