P. C. Saidalavi

Faculty at School of Humanities and Social Sciences

Assistant Professor

School of Humanities and Social Sciences

Caste, hierarchy, inequality, modernity, theories of social change, Islam and Hinduism, mysticism.

Ph.D. in Anthropology, Australian National University, Canberra, 2022

MPhil in Sociology, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, 2015

MA in English, English and Foreign Languages University, (Lucknow Campus), 2012

BA in English Literature, Calicut University, 2010

08/22 – present: Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Shiv Nadar University, Delhi-NCR

2022 Sir Raymond Firth Thesis Prize, Australian National University

2019 Sir Raymond Firth Research Prize, Australian National University

2018 Best Paper Award for PhD scholars, ANU Religion Conference

2012 UGC Junior Research Fellowship

P. C. Saidalavi. “Beyond the Normative: Ambiguity in the Making of a South Indian Sufi.” American Anthropologist 124, no. 2 (2022): 319-332.
P. C. Saidalavi. Review of Difference and Sameness as Modes of Integration: Anthropological Perspectives on Ethnicity and Religion, edited by Günther Schlee and Alexander Horstmann. Social Anthropology 27, no 1 (2018): 131-133.
P. C. Saidalavi. “Status Claims among Muslims in Malabar, South India.” Anthropological Notebooks 23, no, 2 (2017) : 103-105.
P. C. Saidalavi. “Muslim Social Organisation and Cultural Islamisation in Malabar.” South Asia Research 37, no. 1 (2017): 19-36.

Invited talk titled ‘Religion and Religious Syncretism in India’ in the winter school on Religion and Modernity in Contemporary India, IIT Delhi, 21 February 2023.
Invited talk titled ‘Values and Hierarchy among Muslims in India’ in The Ideas Forum, Shiv Nadar University, Delhi, 1st February 2023.

P. C. Saidalavi. ‘Hierarchy as a Social Form: Social Organisation of Muslims in India,’ CHL Graduate Symposium, 9 September 2021, The Australian National University, Canberra.
P. C. Saidalavi. ‘Projects and Power: Marriage Games among Muslims in South India,’ SIEF Congress, 19-24 June 2021, Helsinki, Finland.
P. C. Saidalavi. ‘From Madness to Sacredness: Making of Koyapapa as a Saint in Kerala,’ NZASR/AASR 2018 Conference, 29-30 November, University of Auckland.
P. C. Saidalavi. ‘Being Crazy and a Sufi: Making of Koyapapa as a Saint in Kerala, ANU Religion Conference, 5-7 April 2018, The Australian National University, Canberra.

P. C. Saidalavi. Caste in Islam: Social Hierarchy among Muslims in India. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, (under contract).