Miss. Priya Swamy was born in England and raised in Canada.  She holds a B.A in World Religions from McGill University and an MPhil in Asian Studies from Leiden University. She is currently concluding her doctoral research that explores the emergence of a public Hindu identity in relation to temple building processes in Amsterdam Southeast.

In October 2015 she will begin postdoctoral research at the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV) in Leiden, where she will examine the relationship between active citizenship and Surinamese Hindu identity in temples in Amsterdam.