Dorotea Operato currently works as a postdoctoral researcher in the Task-force A (The Tamil-Speaking South of India) of the ERC Dharma Project. Her research will focus on Tamil inscriptions related to the role of lower jātis in religious and institutional activities during the Chola period. Through this research, she aims to examine the social dynamics and transformations accompanying the rise of Caiva Cittāntam and its establishment into the socio-political frameworks of the Chola era.
Dorotea holds a master’s degree in Oriental Languages and Civilizations and a Ph.D. in Asian, African and Mediterraean Studies from L’Orientale University of Naples. Her research examined the role of Caiva Cittāntam in shaping Tamil cultural and ethno-linguistic identity in the twentieth century, focusing on the thought and works of Mu. Aruṇācalam.
Before joining the ERC Dharma Project, she contributed as a postdoctoral researcher to the ERC Śivadharma Project, where she studied the circulation and reception of the Civatarumōttaram in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
In addition to her academic research, Dorotea is actively engaged in literary translation. Currently, she is translating contemporary Tamil novels by Perumal Murugan into Italian, published by Utopia Editore.
