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Qualitative Researcher. Author. Consultant.
Previously an Indian, South Asian, and world citizen, I am currently also learning to be a proud Bavarian and self-deprecating German. I have lived and worked in India, the United States, Italy, and Oman, but made Germany my home in 2017.
I have worked as a journalist and an academic, but remained a writer at heart. After writing for the New Indian Express, Press Institute of India, and Oman Tribune, I moved to the United States in 2008 for my Master's and PhD degrees. In January 2020, I published my first monograph, Courting Desire: Litigating for Love in North India, which was based on the courtroom ethnography I had conducted for my doctoral thesis. I regularly publish my research and analysis of current events in newspapers and digital media (The Indian Express, The Hindu, Scroll, The Wire) as well as in my personal blogs on Substack.
I have been recognized for research and writing in Europe, the United States, and India with various project grants, positions, and invited talks. I occasionally offer workshops on writing and research methods, but devote most of my time to my second book project. Finally, I also volunteer with local NGOs that support new refugees in Germany and serve as a member of the local Migration Advisory Council.
Professional Experience
Professional Experience
May 2022-Present Researcher, Writer, Consultant
Sept 2017-May 2020
May 2020-May 2022 Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Postdoc, Ca' Foscari Venice
Feb 2021-Feb 2023 Visiting Faculty, IIIT Hyderabad
Sept 2011-May 2017 PhD Candidate & Tutor, Brown
2004-2008 Journalist (in India & Oman)
Visiting Fellowships:
ICAS:MP (2025); FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg (2023); University of Paris Nanterre (2020); Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology (2017)
EDUCATION
EDUCATION
2017 PhD Anthropology
Brown University, USA
2013 MA Anthropology
Brown University, USA
2010 MA Gender & Cultural
Studies
Simmons College, USA
2004 Post-Graduate Diploma
Asian College of Journalism, India
2003 BA (Hons.) History
Delhi University, India
CERTIFICATES
CERTIFICATES
2023 Professional Leadership in Science
ZWM, Germany
2021 Effective Migration Management: Putting Policy Into Action
European University Institute
2014 School of Criticism & Theory
Cornell University, USA
2012-13 Sheridan Teaching Certificate
Brown University, USA
Languages
Languages
English C2
German C1
Hindi C1
Tamil
Heritage Speaker
Bavarian
Conversational
Invited Talks
Invited Talks
Feb 2026. Validating Marriages Across Cultures: Negotiations over Normative Orders in India And Germany. Jindal Global Law School, India.
Feb 2025 Book Talk: Courting Desire: Litigating for Love in North India, IISER Mohali, India.
Colloquium Presentation. Desis at Home while Abroad: A Long-Distance Relationship with Self. M.S. Merian – R. Tagore International Centre of Advanced Studies ‘Metamorphoses of the Political’ (ICAS:MP), Delhi.
April 2024 Book Talk: Courting Desire: Litigating for Love in North India, Sociology Department, Panjab University, Chandigarh, India.
April 2024 Book Talk: Courting Desire: Litigating for Love in North India, Thapar School of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Patiala, India.
April 2024 Marriage on the Move: Immigration, Integration & the South Asian Diaspora, Educational Multimedia Research Centre, Punjabi University, Patiala, India.
Oct 2023 Film Introduction (in German): Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Organised by Filmhaus Nürnberg and FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg.
Oct 2023. Negotiating Consent. EnRoL! - The Human Rights & Rule of Law Speaker Series. (Virtual Mode).
Jan 2023 Love, Longing and Affective Attachments in the South Asian Diaspora. American Studies Colloquium. FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg.
Dec 2021 Mobility and Aspirations Among South Asians in Europe. Institute for Asian and African Studies, Humboldt University.
Nov 2021. Validating Marriages Across Cultures. Standards of Decision-Making Across Cultures Programme. FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg.
March 2021. Marriage, Mobility, and Notions of Belonging. Centre for History and Anthropology of Law, University of Paris Nanterre.
Feb 2021. Panelist on The State, Sex and Sexuality in South Asia session. The South Asia Legal Forum, University College of London.
Nov 2018. From Rite of Passage to Civil Union. Frobenius Institute for Research in Cultural Anthropology, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt am Main.
March 2017. Between Kinship and Courts: Legal Tales of Love Marriages in North India. Center for Contemporary South Asia at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, Brown University.
Select Conference Papers
Select Conference Papers
Sept 2021 conference titled, (Dis)connecting People? The Law and Practice of Family Reunification, Universities of Ghent & Antwerp.
May 2021. New Books in South Asian Legal Studies Panel. Law and Society Association Meeting (virtual mode).
April 2021 Marriage, Mobility, and Notions of Belonging Workshop. International Migration, Integration and Social Cohesion in Europe and Malmö University, Sweden.
June 2017. Love, Marriage, and Normative Orders. University of Cambridge Workshop.
Nov. 2016. The ‘Court Marriage’ Misnomer. American Anthropological Association annual meeting at Minneapolis.
July 2016. Negotiating Consent. European Conference on South Asian Studies, Warsaw, Poland.
July 2016. Protection Petitions as Legal Fiction. European Association of Social Anthropologists conference, Milan.
Nov. 2015. Documenting ‘Love Marriage’. American Anthropological Association annual meeting, Denver
June 2015. Terms of Endearment. Society of Ethnology and Folklore conference, Zagreb.
April 2014. Terms of Endearment: Debating Choice in Marital Relations. Princeton University Workshop.
April 2013 Married by Law: Conceptualizing Unions in Legal Terms. Conference titled, Questioning Marginality: Dalits and Muslims in Urban India, Brown University.
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