Professor Vinay Kumar Srivastava started his anthropological journey by joining B.Sc (Honours) in Anthropology in Hans Raj College, University of Delhi, where he also completed his M.Sc. and was awarded with gold medals in both. Srivastava was also a gold medallist of Masters in Sociology, Delhi School of Economics. He did his M.Phil. from Department of Chinese and Japanese Studies from University of Delhi and his Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge, U.K. in social anthropology in 1994.

He was appointed as a lecturer in sociology at Hindu College, University in Delhi, Thereafter, he joined the Department of Anthropology, University of Delhi, as a lecturer in social anthropology and henceforth became Reader and Professor. Srivastava held several administrative positions too. He was the teacher-in-charge of the Department of Sociology, Hindu College thrice and later became the Principal. He was Head of the Department of Anthropology, University of Delhi from 2014 to 2017 and retired after having served as a teacher for more than four decades. He joined as Director in Anthropological Survey of India in August 2017. He was also Director-in-Charge of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies. He is a member of National Commission for Sub-categorization of the Other Backward Classes under Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India and also a member of the Commission that Government of India set up for De-notified, Nomadic, and Semi-nomadic Communities (2015–2018).

Prof. Srivastava has more than 20 books and 100 research articles to his credit. He is the Chief Editor of Journal of the Anthropological Survey of India,and also one of the two Editors of Social Change,both published by Sage.