Jyothi Jayaprakash holds a PhD in Theatre and Performance Studies from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Her doctoral research focuses on identity politics and the role of performance in staging the political, in Kodagu, India, by examining issues of domination and resistance, identity fetishism, and imagined notions of nationality, and the overarching phenomenon of the use of performances as weapons of assertion and dissension. She is also a member of the International Council for Traditional Music and is currently pursuing her research on pearl diving music in the Middle East and its relevance in the creation of a national identity.