Meenakshi Thapan is a trustee of the Krishnamurti Foundation of India and currently the Director of the Rishi Valley Education Centre in rural Andhra Pradesh. She encountered Krishnamurti and his teachings very early in her life, and from then on, has had an ongoing engagement with his educational thought as well as institutions. She taught briefly at the Rishi Valley School and later conducted her doctoral field research within this school community, resulting in the publication of her first book, Life at School: an ethnographic study (1991, 2006, 2nd ed.). Subsequently, she has been a highly accomplished academician, based at the University of Delhi, and held the positions of Professor of Sociology and Director, Delhi School of Economics as well as Head of the D.S. Kothari Centre for Science, Ethics and Education, University of Delhi until her retirement in 2019. Dr. Thapan has travelled widely, teaching, speaking, and contributing to university departments all over the world. She is the recipient of a number of prestigious awards, apart from being the author of numerous books, research papers, and articles in several prominent publications. The most recent are (ed.) J. Krishnamurti and Educational Practice: Social and Moral Vision for Inclusive Education (2018), Education and Society: Themes, Perspectives, Practices (ed.) (2015), Ethnographies of Schooling in Contemporary India (ed.) (2014), and Contested Spaces: Citizenship and Belonging in Contemporary Times (ed.) (2010).
