Liz Maria Joys

Liz Maria Joys

Department of Modern Languages
Doctoral researcher

Contact details

Phd title: Missionary Engagement and Casteism: History and Memory of an Encounter in the Colonial Context of Kerala
SupervisorsDr Berny Sèbe and Dr Jagbir Jhutti-Johal
PhD Postcolonial Studies

Qualifications

  • MA English - First Class (Stella Maris College- University of Madras, India), 2019
  • BA English - Distinction (Wilson College- University of Mumbai, India), 2017

Research

My work examines the pivotal influence of British Protestant missionaries in suppressing the practice of casteism in Kerala, India during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. By demonstrating the impact of these missionaries upon the lower caste community of Cochin and Travancore, my study engages with the long-running academic debates around the role of missionaries as a part of colonisation. Although casteism affected every aspect of those from the lower castes, the primary focus of this study will be the discrimination of lower castes by upper castes based on their food habits, and how these were challenged by the irruption of Protestant missionaries against the backdrop of the British conquest of the Indian sub-continent

Other activities

Funding

TEMPIO Trust

Publications