Dr.Bharathi Harishankar has assumed charge as Vice Chancellor from the Forenoon of 22nd Dec 2021 of Avinashilingam Institute for Home Science and Higher Education for Women (Deemed to be University)

Dr.Bharathi Harishankar has been Professor of English and Founding Head of the Department of Women's Studies, University of Madras. She has held several administrative positions such as Dean Student Affairs, Director IQAC, Director International Centre, Coordinator RUSA, Director UGC HRDC and Member Syndicate.

A Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, London, UK Dr.Bharathi's research interests include Postcolonial Studies, Gender Studies, Literary Theory, Translation, Web Based Pedagogy and Open Educational Resources. She has 118 publications including books, edited volumes, textbooks, articles and translations in national and international journals. She has presented invited talks in over 100 conferences, most notably at Cambridge University, UK and La Pietra Dialogues at New York University, Florence. She has successfully guided 16 M.Phil &14 Ph.D scholars. Recently, Dr Bharathi was instrumental in setting up a Gender Lab, the first of its kind in the country, to offer online workshops on gender sensitization, in collaboration with Sutherland Global Services. She has designed a Soft Skills course on Gender Sensitization and Workplace Readiness.