Mukesh Kulriya entered the Ph.D. program in Ethnomusicology in Fall of 2018, having previously received an M.Phil in Theater and Performance Studies and a Master’s degree in Arts and Aesthetics, both from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Mukesh’s research focuses on the intersection of music and religion in South Asia in the context of gender and caste. His Ph.D. research project examines bhakti, or devotion, in women’s folk songs of Rajasthan, India, with a particular interest in the communitarian spirit of the bhakti and sufi movements as a challenge to the dominant Brahmanical patriarchal order in South Asia and a movement toward the creation of an egalitarian society. His M.Phil dissertation, titled Jama, Mela and Parcha: Cultural Enactments of Ramdev or Ramsa Pir, focused on Ramdev, a 14th-century Northern Indian saint. Since 2010, Mukesh has collaborated on India-based projects centered around craft, culture, folk music and oral traditions as an organizer, archivist, translator and researcher.