Education:

B.A., Stella Maris College
MSc., University of Surrey
M.A., National University of Singapore

Research interests:

Medieval literature; Buddhism; Shinto; theatrical performance; narratives; myth and folklore; gender

Self-introduction:

Malavika Nataraj is a PhD student whose research focuses on the socio-cultural history of the religious traditions that prevailed in medieval Japan. Her work examines how religious belief, sacred spaces and social norms were constructed and communicated through Buddhist-Shinto narratives, visual culture and theatrical performance, and how these mediated broader gendered ideologies. She holds an MA in Japanese Studies from the National University of Singapore (NUS), where her thesis examined Ueda Akinari’s Ugetsu Monogatari within the religious and socio-political context of the Tokugawa shogunate.

Malavika also holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from India and a Master’s degree in Marketing from the United Kingdom. Prior to joining NUS, she worked as a writer, editor, and Japanese-English translator. From 2018 to 2021, she was an active Japanese Docent at the National Museum of Singapore and the Asian Civilizations Museum.

Thesis Research Area:

Her research explores how narratives shaped religious belief and sacred spaces in medieval Japan. Through a study of the three Grand Shrines of Kumano, she examines how stories, visual texts and theatrical performances constructed the shrines as miraculous spaces, and how these narratives were mobilised to cultivate religious faith, facilitate proselytization and generate support for the Kumano cult.