Dr. Wairokpam Yaiphaba Chenglei is an Assistant Professor of English at Pravabati College, Manipur. He earned his BA from Manipur University, completed his MA in English from IGNOU, New Delhi, and received his PhD in English from Manipur University in 2024. He is now serving as an ICSSR Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of English & Cultural Studies, Manipur University, Imphal for the period 2024-26. His research focuses on indigenous folklore, oral traditions, cultural identity, eco-criticism, and comparative cultural studies. He has authored books and published several scholarly articles in reputed journals.
As a Fulbright-Nehru Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Dr. Chenglei is undertaking a comparative philosophical study of the Meitei festival Lai Haraoba and the Cherokee Green Corn Ceremony as living expressions of indigenous metaphysics and embodied knowledge. His project examines how ritual, myth, and performance preserve shared values of kinship, sacred ecology, gratitude, and cultural resilience. Through this fellowship, he aims to contribute to global scholarship on indigenous philosophy and promote cross-cultural dialogue on traditional knowledge systems.