Ketaki Jaywant earned her PhD in History from the University of Minnesota. She is a historian of Modern South Asia with research interests in the history of anti-caste critique, liberalism in South Asia, nineteenth-century socio-religious reform, and print culture on the margins. Her current book project examines how ‘lower-caste’ writers,  many of whom worked as shopkeepers, constables, and contractors, shaped the world of nineteenth-century anti-caste ideas. By deeply thinking about the resources, traditions, and genealogies that ‘lower-caste’ radicals drew upon and aligned themselves with, Jaywant explores the expressions of people who were not considered intellectuals in both their time and ours. Her book argues that ‘lower-caste’ activist-writers were the first to systematically reframe caste as a fundamentally political phenomenon and a social relationship primarily rooted in conflict. She is also the recipient of the 2021 Sardar Patel Award for writing the best dissertation on any aspect of modern South Asia at a U.S. university.