Former DU interim VC, anthropologist PC Joshi passes away at 69

Professor Pooran Chand Joshi who served as 23rd pro vice-chancellor, acting VC, and interim VC of Delhi University passed away at the age of 69 on the midnight of June 20. He was a former professor of social anthropology at the department of anthropology at DU.

Following professor Y K Tyagi's suspension, he took the charge as active VC of DU in October 2020 and served the position till May 2021. Joshi was appointed the interim VC on March 10, 2021 with the end of the tenure of professor Tyagi.

Joshi completed PhD in Medical Anthropology from Delhi University, in 1985 and MPhil in Social Anthropology in 1979. He obtained an MSc degree in social anthropology from DU in 1977 and graduated in BSc (Honours) Anthropology from the same university in 1975.

Before joining his alma mater, the professor was a junior research fellow, University Grant Commission from 1979 to 1984. He served as a lecturer and head, Department of Anthropology, H N B Garhwal University, Srinagar, Uttar Pradesh from 1985 to 1989 and associate professor and head of the Department of Medical Anthropology, Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences, Delhi between 1997 and 2003. He joined DU as a professor in 2003.

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His area of specialisation was medical anthropology, qualitative research, public health, disaster impact assessment tools, and anthropology and mountain communities.

PC Joshi received several awards for his contribution including the Indira Priyadarshini Vriksha Mitra National Award as Friends of Trees founder member, 1987, the Inter-University Centre Associateship Award in Humanities and Social Sciences, 1996-1999, Certificate of Honour at the First France-India Meet on Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy, 2007. Besides, he was the recipient of the Plaque of Appreciation from the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Xavier University Ateneo de Cagayan de Oro City, Philippines, 2008.