Vyjayanthi Rao is an anthropologist, writer and curator focusing on displacement, memory, material cultures and imaginaries of the future in contemporary social life. Her work explores the connections between violence, ruination, uncertainty and speculation in contemporary culture and has been published widely, in journals, edited volumes, catalogue texts and magazines.
Vyjayanthi received her Ph.D. in Socio-Cultural Anthropology from the University of Chicago and has taught at The New School for Social Research and the Spitzer School of Architecture. She is a Visiting Professor at the Yale School of Architecture and a Co-Editor in Chief of the journal Public Culture. She is the chief curator of the Sharjah Architecture Triennial 2026 Edition.