phd

PhD Thesis Title: Curating Distinction : Urban Aspirations and Boundary-Making in Contemporary Urban Leisure Spaces in India

Expected Completion Date: September 2027

PhD Supervisor: Kristen McNeill

Vinathi’s research investigates the social dynamics of India’s emerging café culture as a window into broader processes of urban transformation. Focusing on cafés as contemporary leisure spaces, it explores how labour, consumption, and spatial curation produce social distinction and aspiration. The research examines how these everyday practices of boundary-making shape inequalities within the city.
 

profile
 

Vinathi is a doctoral candidate at the Graduate Institute, holding the Swiss Government Excellence Scholarship. She previously pursued a Master's degree in sociology from the University of Hyderabad, with a thesis that examined issues of citizenship and the exclusion of migrants in cities during the COVID-19 pandemic. She earned her Bachelor's degree in social sciences from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences. She additionally pursued an academic exchange program at Macquarie University in Australia. Prior to commencing her PhD, Vinathi worked as a Research Associate for NGOs and think tanks in India focusing on issues of internal migration, agricultural distress, access to education and gender inequality.
 

Fellowships, Grants and Awards
 

• Swiss Government Excellence Scholarship (2024)
• The Graduate Institute (IHEID), Doctoral Academic Scholarship (2023)
• Vice-Chancellor’s International Scholarship, Macquarie University, Sydney- Tata Institute of Social Sciences Ambassador (2018)
   

Areas of expertise
 

• Urban Sociology, Sociology of work
• Economic Sociology
• Sociology of Gender