Gajendran Ayyathurai | Critical Caste Studies and the Question of Aesthetics

This talk engages with anti-caste cultural philosophy to examine the possibilities for decentering brahminical art forms that are inherently caste-centric, and exclude caste- and gender-oppressed people. It will also explore the opportunities for recentering pre-caste, casteless, and anti-caste vernacular art forms that have continued to flourish in diverse caste-free and inclusive spaces and temporalities. Crucially, this talk emphasizes the urgent need for Critical Caste Studies to be established across South Asian Humanities and Social Science centers. 

Dr. Gajendran Ayyathurai is a historian and an anthropologist from Göttingen, Germany. He is the author of Tamil Buddhism and Brahminism In Modern India (2025). He will deliver this talk online, to an audience gathered at the venue in Stanford and on Zoom.

This event is hosted by the Caste, Culture, and Aesthetics Global Humanities Research Workshop co-sponsored by Stanford Global Studies and the Stanford Humanities Center.