• Caste studies
• Village studies
• Morality and ethics
• Migration studies
• Marriage and kinship

Vandana holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Hyderabad. Based on immersive ethnographic work, she engaged and analysed Bhumihar women’s positionality, practices, and ideas amid rural flux and the possibilities it generates for women’s agency. Prior to that she did MPhil in Planning and Development from Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB). Her master’s is in Sociology from Jawaharlal Nehru University and BA from Banaras Hindu University in Sociology (Hons). 

Before joining Azim Premji University, she has worked as guest faculty in University of Hyderabad and as Assistant Professor GITAM (deemed to be) University. Her broader research interests include gender, caste, marriage and kinship, social mobility, morality and ethics, and village studies. 

She believes that education rooted in compassion and care holds transformative and emancipatory potential. Beyond academia, she enjoys films and literature, viewing them as powerful, non-academic mediums to understand and explain nuances of the socio-political and economic aspects of our societies.