Carved granite Nandi. Vijayanagara Empire. Circa 16th Century CE. From Deccan, India. Currently “housed” in the British Museum in London. From their website: “The white, humped bull Nandi (‘rejoicing’) symbolizes strength, virility and fertility as well as religious and moral duties. His crouching image, often housed in a small pavilion, is at the entrance of every Shiva temple.” Visit their website to read their “Acquisition Notes.”

The Hazards of Conventional Wisdom

A Critical Reading of Recent Findings on Indian American Hindus by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Survey Studies: It’s Complicated…

I am generally skeptical of survey studies, given how easy it is for findings to simply extend researchers’ existing ideas. These studies tend to captivate the public imagination; they make us feel informed, like we’re getting a birds’-eye view of aggregated, empirical data handed to us in juicy, authoritative bullet points. Biased, ideologically-heavy studies can masquerade as “neutral, empirical, generalizable data,” neatly aggregating numbers into percentages and colorful graphs, which we like and trust because they feel science-y and we can share them easily.

Thinking critically about survey studies before we consume them is less thrilling, but it is incredibly important.

Survey design and protocol are of particular importance. In order for survey studies to communicate authentic information about participants, the research design must include a high level of transparent communication between researchers and participants. Researchers and participants all operate from sets of assumptions. This isn’t a bad thing; assumptions allow us to function in the world and are…