Krishni Metivier, doctoral student in the Asian Religions track, successfully defended her dissertation “Can A Hindu Be Black?: A Study of Black Americans in Hinduism” on July 19, 2021, in time for September graduation. Drs. Richard Jaffe and Joseph Winters co-chaired her committee; Drs. Leela Prasad and Jason Bivins also served on the committee. She has also completed work for the Certificate in College Teaching.
Metivier has given extensive service to the university and our program during her study in the Graduate Program in Religion (GPR). She ably served as Graduate Student Representative in the GPR and for Graduate Student Affairs and represented the GPR in the Graduate and Professional Student Council (GPSC). She also served as chair of the Task Force Against Hate and Bias with the GPSC.
Over her time at Duke University, Metivier has received numerous fellowships, among them the International Dissertation Travel Award, Genentech Foundation Summer Fellowship, Provost Graduate Assistantship, Dean’s Graduate Fellowship, American Association of University Women American Dissertation Fellowship, and Gurney Harriss Kearns Summer Research Fellowship. She has authored and co-authored several publications, the most recent being a chapter (“Her Voice: Women’s Negotiation of Identity in the American Hare Krishna Movement”) in The Worldwide Krishna Movement: Collected Essays on Half a Century of Growth, Impact, and Challenge, by Oxford University, which is forthcoming.
Metivier’s plans for the future include speaking at colleges and universities about antiracism in higher education and converting her dissertation into a book manuscript.
Graduate Program in Religion