Tejas Harad Awarded 2026-27 Sobti Fieldwork Fellowship by the Penn Center for the Advanced Study of India
Harad studies alternative media in India and how it shapes the anti-caste public sphere.
Doctoral student Tejas Harad was awarded the 2026-27 Sobti Fieldwork Fellowship by the Penn Center for the Advanced Study of India. The fellowship provides a Penn doctoral student studying contemporary India with funding to conduct dissertation fieldwork and to develop research interests around India’s current politics, society, economy, and international relations.
Harad’s research focuses on how anti-caste activists in India use social media platforms, particularly Instagram, to challenge caste discrimination and how these platforms affect social movement activism. “I study how Instagram's platform architecture, algorithm, and content moderation policies play a constraining and enabling role and how anti-caste content creators negotiate with them,” he explains. He will use the grant to investigate the work of these artists and content creators in Mumbai.
“The Sobti Fieldwork Fellowship will greatly aid me in my fieldwork, I am grateful to the Center for the Advanced Study of India for its support,” Harad says. “In my ethnographic research, I will be working with anti-caste artists and content creators, spending time with them at their studios, community spaces, galleries, public meetings, and social media conferences.”
In addition, Harad will also interview artists, content creators, social media talent management agencies, and platform company personnel.
