Sharvari Sastry

Sharvari Sastry is a PhD Candidate in the departments of South Asian Languages and Civilizations and Theater and Performance Studies. Her dissertation research focuses on the ethics and aesthetics of performance preservation in the modern and contemporary Indian context. She explores these issues primarily with reference to tamasha and lavani, performance forms of Maharashtra in Western India, examining how attempts to preserve these so-called “folk” forms negotiate issues of caste, class and gender. Her dissertation project draws from archival and ethnographic sources, and hopes to reflect on the ruptures between collaboration & appropriation, documentation & museumization, recording & memory, performance & archives. Prior to starting graduate school, Sharvari worked as an administrator, editor and amateur archivist with various theatre companies in Bombay.