Sailaja Joshi
Consumer Anthropologist & Chief Cultural Officer in Training
Sailaja Neel-Ganti Joshi is student who is nurturing her passion to bridge the gap between the world of business and social science. Over the past four years she has been studying anthropological theory and looking for a means to incorporate it the world of marketing research and consumer insights. She is a regular consultant for Human Branding and Practical Semiotics and has interned at Ethnographic Research and Thinkers & Makers. Through her research work with these companies, Sailaja has increased her passion for innovative research and will be opening up her own research boutique in 2013.
In 2012 Sailaja graduated from Harvard University, Extension School with a Masters Degree in Extension Studies with a concentration in Anthropology and Archeology. Her thesis titled DESIred Beauty looks to explore the relationship between ideal beauty and cultural identity among Asian-Indian American women. Her research work will be presented at conference around the world including the Annual Meeting of the Popular Culture Association (Boston, MA; April 2012), the American Sociology Association (Denver, CO; August 2012), and the Inter-Disciplinary Net Beauty-2 Conference (England; September 2012; unable to attend). In addition she has been asked by companies such as Godrej Industries (India) to present her research work to company officials.
In addition to her work at Harvard, Sailaja is currently a dual degree student at Simmons College studying Gender/Cultural Studies (MA) and Communication Management (MS). As a dual degree student she will be completing two final projects. Her year long thesis for a degree in Gender/Cultural Studies will uses the theories of transnational feminism to explore the dynamic relationship between nationalism, cultural identity, beauty, and fashion within diaspora cultures. She will be working with Jyoti Puri to complete this work.
Her final projects for her degree in Communication Management will focus on creating and developing a research boutique called The Research Geek, which provides comprehensive research solutions for Consumer Anthropologists and Academics. The goal of the boutique is to provide individuals with a greater understand of how to manage their research problems, and how to solve them using an innovative 360-degree approach.
When she is not pursuing her education, Sailaja teaches yoga throughout the Boston area and is an active volunteer in the Hindu Youth Community.