PhD Thesis
Title: Conflation of Religion and Nation: Ingredients for a Possessive Majority
PhD Supervisor & Co-Supervisor: David Sylvan and Sungmin Rho
Expected completion date: 2024
Vishnu studies ethnocentrism and majoritarian politics using qualitative methods and cognitive mapping approach. He is looking at the processes by which people conflate their religious identity and territorial attachment, leading to a majoritarian possessiveness towards the land, and in worst cases, normalizing the exclusionary policies of the state.
Profile
Vishnu Varatharajan is a doctoral student in the International Relations/Political Science department. For his research, he is using cognitive mapping approach to trace the belief systems of ethnocentric behaviour. He is also interning at Global Survivors Fund, performing qualitative analysis and working with various partner organizations in the Survivors’ Perceptions of Reparations Review, a global comprehensive mapping study of the status of and opportunities for reparations for survivors of conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV). Vishnu is a blogger, photographer and digital graphic artist by passion and an occasional numismatist inclined to learning cultural history from coins.
Research Interests
- Cognitive Mapping
- Discourse Analysis
- Computational Models
- Media Agenda
- Political Psychology
- Echo Chamber
- Availability Cascade