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Mr Vishal Sangu

Profile summary

  • Research Student
  • Research Student
  • Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences
  • vishal.sangu

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Professional biography

Vishal Sangu has a BA (Hons) from the University of Chester in Theology and Religious Studies (2020). Between 2021 (June-July) Vishal undertook a role at the University of Chester as a Research Assistant. His duties included working apart in the development of an inclusive curriculum project, to help decolonise the provision of Sikhi for the Department of Theology and Religious Studies. He obtained a Masters by Research (MRes) in Humanities from the University of Wolverhampton (2022). His Masters thesis was titled "'Lost in Translation: Sikhi under Colonial Discourse', tracing the interactions and influence of colonialism on Sikh identity and its effects on the wider Sikh diaspora.

Vishal is currently undertaking a PhD in Religious Studies looking at British Sikh religious identity and exploring contemporary Sikh narratives of decolonisation. Vishal's research is looking at how and why contemporary Sikhs are actively "decolonising" their identity. His research is poised to make an important theoretical contribution pushing Religious Studies to incorporate more fully the self-understandings of non-Abrahamic frameworks. As well as addressing the government and media presentations of Sikhi in Britain and India, where there is targeting of Sikh activists as troublemakers, Vishal's research is situated to study the Sikh community in their own articulation of identity. As of October 2024, Vishal received a studentship from the Open-Oxford-Cambridge Arts and Humanities Research Council Doctoral Training Partnership. 

Vishal's supervisors are Professor Graham Harvey and Dr. Suzanne Newcombe. 

Research interests

Vishal's research interests include, but are not limited to:

  • Sikh diaspora.
  • Colonialism and Decolonisation.
  • Sikh identity within Britain.
  • The formation of the Sikh panth and how it is practiced in the diaspora.
  • Sants within Sikhi.
  • The influence of Nirmala and Vedanta schools in Sikh practice. 
  • Music in Sikh traditions.
  • Use of music by South Asian/Afro-Caribbean diasporas in Britian.

To further these research interests, Vishal is a member of the British Association for the Study of Religion and the British Association for South Asian Studies. 

Teaching interests

Vishal is a part of the FASS PGR Teaching Scheme, currently supporting the D113 Global Challenges: Social Science in Action. 

Impact and engagement

Publications:

List of conferences:

  • 2nd – 4th September - BASR (British Association for the Study of Religion) - Ethical Implications of Researching Sikh Marginalised Communities in the Public Sector – University of Leeds
  • 26th June 2024 – Open University – PGR Summer Conference - How are Contemporary British Sikhs Decolonising their Identity
  • 19th May 2024 – Implicit Religion: Gender, Agency, and Representation - Understanding the Genderless Divine In Sikhi – Online.
  • 23rd September 2023 – Open University-University of East Anglia PGR Symposium Contemporary Debates in Postcolonial, Decolonial and Global Literary Studies - Moving past postcolonialism: Sikh studies and Decolonisation - University of East Anglia.
  • 3rd June 2023 – Research in Sikh Studies Conference – “Lost in Translation”: How Colonialism Affects Sikh Identity – Centre for Sikh and Panjabi Studies (University of Wolverhampton).
  • 6th February 2023 – Dharmic Traditions: Decolonising Teaching – Decolonising the Teaching of Sikhi – Online (Coventry Diocesan Board of Education).
  • 4th February 2023 – Sikhi and Coloniality – Sikhi and Coloniality: An Intertwined Relationship? – Online (St Andrews Sikh Society).
  • 15th November 2022 – The Big Debate: Faith and Climate Crisis – Panel discussion; representing Sikh views on climate change – University Centre Warrington, Time Square (University of Chester).
  • 1st October 2022 – Conversations: Searching for the Sacred in South Asia (A Postgraduate Symposium on Religion in South Asia) – How Colonialism Affects Sikh Identity: Issues Regarding Terminology – University of Cambridge.
  • 1st September 2022 – BASR (British Association for the Study of Religion) – How Colonialism Shaped Modern Sikh Identity – Milton Keynes.
  • 21st July 2022 – Advance EDI Colloquium: Decolonising Pedagogies - Decolonising Sikhi in TRS – Online (Advance HE).
  • 29th June 2022 –Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Conference - Decolonising the teaching of Sikhi in TRS (Theology and Religious Studies). – University of Chester.