Vishal Sangu

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.