Jahnabi’s work is driven by a desire to educate others about the complexities of storytelling and the importance of listening to diverse voices, both human and non-human.

Jahnabi Barooah Chanchani is a PhD candidate in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Michigan. Previously, Jahnabi earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Princeton University and a Master of Theological Studies in Hindu studies at Harvard University.

Jahnabi’s current research investigates how people in early India represented their relationships with their animal counterparts in imaginative story literature composed in Sanskrit. Jahnabi’s work is driven by a desire to educate others about the complexities of storytelling and the importance of listening to diverse voices, both human and non-human. As she continues her academic career, she is dedicated to making an impact on both personal and global levels by exposing deep connections between culture and ecology. Her research enriches scholarly knowledge of ancient Sanskrit literature and also encourages contemporary audiences to consider the ethical implications of our relationship to the environment.

Her recent publications include “Preaching and Preening: A Tūtī’s Book in Persianate India” in the Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient and “History from the Margins: Literary Culture and Manuscript Production in Western India in the Vernacular Millennium” in Manuscript Studies. She has also published two co-authored books, most recently on Indian love poems. Jahnabi won the Diane Owen Hughes Scholarship from the Program in Medieval and Early Modern Studies at U-M. For the 2024-2025 academic year, Jahnabi has been named the Richard and Lillian Ives Graduate Fellow by the Institute for the Humanities.

In 2022, Jahnabi and her husband welcomed their daughter, Nandini. In addition to praising her “erudite, masterful” academic work, Jahnabi’s adviser praises her for being an unusually “reliable, smart, disciplined” student always willing to help others while balancing her caregiving responsibilities.

CEW+ salutes Jahnabi’s contributions to her field and names her the Caroline M. Lee Scholar.