Student Directory
Anthropology
Shehzad Arifeen
Graduate student
Education: MA Social Sciences (specialization in Anthropology), University of Chicago; MSc Economics, Tilburg University, Tilburg, Netherlands
Interests: Political economy, capital accumulation, labour, post-colonial state building, movements, Left and Communist history
Sarah Eleazar Sadiq
Graduate student
Interests: Political ecology, water, toxicity, environmental inequalities, and labor
Sardar Hussain
PhD student
Interests: City, Space and Place, Heritage, Gentrification, Everyday Life, the Ordinary
Jui-Han Kan
Graduate student
Education: MA, Anthropology, National Taiwan University
Interests: Political ecology, environmental change, fishery, river life
Shafaq Sohail
PhD student
Education: BSc. in Anthropology & Sociology, LUMS
Interests: Urbanization, spatial politics and inequality, colonial and postcolonial histories, collective memory.
Asian Studies
Amara Ali
Graduate student
Education: MPhil, Modern South Asian Studies, University of Cambridge
Interests: Islam in South Asia, Urdu Literature, Shia and Sufi devotional traditions
Cicely Bonnin
PhD student
Education: BSc, BEd, MA (Linguistics), The University of Queensland
Interests: Sanskrit language and literature; Old Indic; Middle Indic; Hindi; Sense perception in linguistics, literature and religion; Color; Language change; Translation; Classical South Asian poetics and epistemology
Katharine Chandler
MA student
Education: BA in Philosophy, Religious Studies, History, and Great Books, East Carolina University
Interests: Ethnography, Women and Gender Studies in South Asia, Goddess Worship
Isaac Dwyer
MA Student in Contemporary South Asia
Education: BA, Literature & Spanish, Bennington College
Interests: Hindi-Urdu language and literature, queerness in South Asia, transgender studies, Dalit studies, disability studies, labor and migration.
Michael Fiden
PhD student
Education: MA in Religious Studies, University of South Florida.
Interests: Gṛhyasūtras; Vedas; Domestic Religion; Hinduism; Sanskrit Literature; Malayalam; Kerala Studies
Nina Gat
PhD candidate
Interests: Literatures of India with a special interest in the beginnings of modern Hindi literature; Classical Indian aesthetics; & Indian modernity as reflected in post-independence Hindi literature
Charlotte Giles
PhD candidate
Interests: Indo-Islamic culture and history, Urdu literature, labor, home-based production and the textile industry
M. Hammad
MA student
Education: BA, Political Science, University of Central Florida
Interests: Urdu poetics, postcolonial studies, performance studies, ethnic studies, biopolitics, material feminist studies, orientalism, diaspora studies, and gender studies.
Katie Lazarowicz
PhD candidate
Interests: Indian Folk art (Madhubani Painting, Mithila Art), Material Culture & Visual Studies, Development & Labor, Bihar, Hindi, Economics & Economic History 19th Century - present, Contemporary Indian Art, Religious and Spiritual Traditions of India, Jesuits in India
Benjamin Simington
MA student
Education: B.A., History, Carthage College
Interests: Islam in South Asia, Sufi texts, Urdu, Anti-colonialism, Critical Whiteness Studies
John Taylor
PhD student
Interests: Classical Sanskrit literature, esp. the Mahabharata, ritual theory, gender & body theory, Indo-European linguistics
Business and Marketing
Communication Studies
Paulami Banerjee
Postdoctoral Fellow
paulami.banerjee@austin.utexas.edu
Education: PhD, Environmental Science and Engineering, University of Texas at El Paso
Interests: Sustainability Challenges in the Global South, Public Participation, Social Justice and Grassroots Advocacy, Environmental Communication, Community Based Natural Resource Management.
Meenakshi Yadav
PhD student
Education: MA Media in Development, SOAS, University of London
Interests: Digital Technologies, Anti-caste movements, Social movements, Cultural Studies, Political Communication
Comparative Literature
Hamza Iqbal
PhD student
Education: MA, Comparative Literature, University of Texas at Austin, and MA, Honours Philosophy, University of St Andrews, UK
Interests: Long nineteenth century, Urdu Poetics, French Literature, Continental Philosophy, Postcolonial Theory, Psychoanalysis, Critical and Literary Theory
Poorna Swami
Graduate student
Education: BA English and Dance-Theatre, Mount Holyoke College
Interests: 20th century Hindi-Urdu literature, contemporary literature, postcolonial studies, feminist theory, translation, modern Indian cultural and political histories, performance studies
Economics
Sangita Vyas
Graduate student
sangita.vyas@utexas.edu |
BRB 3.134G
Education: MPA, Princeton University
Interests: economic demography; applied microeconomics; public, health, and development economics
Ethnomusicology
Aruna Kharod
MA/PhD student
Education: BA, Ethnomusicology, University of Texas at Austin
Interests: Sitar
Caroline Rohm
Graduate student
Education: DMA, Flute Performance, University of Maryland
Interests: Flute, North India, networks of transnational music communities
History
Kirtan Patel
Graduate student
Education: MA in History, Utah State University
Interests: British Empire, Colonial India, Hindu Religious History, Monastic Leadership and Culture, Migration History, History of Emotions, Religious Community Formation
Information Studies
Krishna Akhil Kumar Adavi
Graduate student
Education: BE, Electrical and Electronics Engineering, BITS Pilani; MA, Liberal Studies (Concentration in Sociology and Anthropology), Ashoka University
Interests: Technology Startups, Digital Labour, Markets
Middle Eastern Studies
Bryan Sitzes
Graduate student
Education: PhD, University of Texas at Austin
Interests: Environmental histories of the Persianate world
Public Affairs
Gaurav Gaur
Graduate student
Education: Bachelors of Engineering, University of Delhi, India
Interests: E-governance, data driven public service delivery mechanisms, urban transportation
Vivek Shastry
Graduate student
Education: MS (Sustainable Design) and MS (Community and Regional Planning), University of Texas at Austin
Interests: Sustainable energy and Poverty alleviation, Energy technology innovation and adoption, Data science, machine learning and statistical modeling, Implementation science and action research.
Rania Sohail
Graduate student
Education: BSFS, International Economics, Georgetown University, School of Foreign Service
Interests: Poverty alleviation and social policy, Gender and development; especially the relationship between health, economic, and social determinants on individual choices and community welfare in Pakistan, Evaluations for development programs.
Religious Studies
Harsha Gautam
Graduate student
Education: MA and MPhil in Ancient History, Jawaharlal Nehru University
Interests: Premodern South Asia | Early Buddhism | Comparison of the Vinaya traditions | Buddhist Art | Gender and Identity-formation | Intellectual History
Evan LeBarre
Graduate student
Interests: Religions in History, Sanskrit, Tamil, Vedic studies, asceticism, philosophy, Native American studies
Blake Pye
Graduate student
Education: MA, Middle Eastern Studies, University of Texas at Austin
Interests: Sufism and sainthood, the intersection of Sufism and politics, and knowledge hierarchies in premodern Islamic societies
Sociology
Upama Bhattacharya
Graduate student
Education: MPhil, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai
Interests: Economic Sociology, Sociology of Money, Class, Work, Markets
Upasana Garnaik
Graduate student
Education: LL.M., Duke University School of Law
Interests: Gender, Sexuality, Family Law, Social Movement and Property Rights
Vrinda Marwah
PhD student
Education: MA, London School of Economics and Political Science
Interests: Reproductive health and technologies, Gender, Sexuality, Race and Ethnicity, Qualitative Methodology, Contemporary India, Social Movements, Law and Policy, State
Beth Prosnitz
PhD student
Education: MA, The New School
Interests: Political Sociology, Social Movements, Citizenship, Gender
