Prof. Vishnupad is an accomplished academician and a research Scholar whose impressive career spans two decades and two continents. With a doctorate in Anthropology from Columbia University in New York, USA, he has received a wide range of research fellowships and awards throughout his academic career. He has taught in various capacities at renowned institutions in the USA and India, such as SUNY, Binghamton; Columbia University, New York; Hampshire College, Amherst; and Azim Premji University (APU), Bangalore, India, before joining SRM University-AP as the Dean of the School of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences.

Prof. Vishnupad did his Master’s in Political Science at Delhi University and Master’s in Sociology at SUNY, Binghamton. He was awarded President’s Fellowship to pursue his doctoral work at Columbia University and, over his tenure there, received the Andrew Mellon Foundation, GSAS Fellowship, Scheps Fellowship, and A M Foundation Grant. For his field research work, he was awarded the American Institute of Indian Studies (AIIS) Fellowship(declined) and the Columbia University Travelling Fellowship. He was a fellow at the prestigious Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy (ISERP). At SUNY Binghamton, he was the recipient of the Research Foundation Fellowship. He had been a member of the Freudo-Lacanian chapters in New York and Boston for years.

His research and intellectual Interests have broadly involved three significant themes: India's socio-cultural and political transformation following the liberalisation of the economy, including the pervasive spread of new social media; the ‘Secular’ question in India; and the Freudo-Lacanian psychoanalysis and continental philosophy. He is currently working on two monographies (a) cultural transformation following economic liberalisation in India and (b) Indian secularism.

At Azim Premji university, he was one of the founding members of the School of Development (SOD), the Law, Government and Development Initiative (LGDI), and the School of Policy and Government (SPG), and he has worked on all aspects of their institutionalisation and growth. Before Joining SRM AP, he was involved in developing the Legal Studies Programme for the Liberal Arts School at APU.

In his current role as the Dean of the Easwari School of Liberal Arts, he is expected to spread out his illustrious legacy for the steadfast growth and welfare of the institution. Prof. Vishnupad can be reached at vishnupad.m@srmap.edu.in