Doctoral Students

Varun is a first year Ph.D. scholar at NIAS, his research interests lie in Security Studies, Maritime Security, Small Island States, Indian Ocean, and Indo-Pacific.

Thesis Title: One UN, Umpteen Climate Securities: Conceptualizing and Assessing the Climate Security Discourse of the United Nations Organizations.

Educational background: B.A. with majors in History from Loyola College, Chennai.

M.A. in Political Science from University of Hyderabad

David Jangminlien is a PhD Scholar at NIAS. Before inducting as a doctoral student at the institute, he completed Master of Arts in Political Science at Indira Gandhi National Tribal University, Madhya Pradesh and a Bachelor of Arts at Don Bosco College Maram, Manipur. He was listed in the Prime Minister Box 2020 as Prime Minister’s Guest to witness the Republic Day Parade 2020 at Rajpath, New Delhi. 

Jangminlien is working with Dr. Anshuman Behera on the research enterprise entitled: Ethnic Conflicts in Manipur: A Study of Kuki and Naga Conflict. He has a keen interest in conflict management in a multi-ethnic society.  

His areas of research interest include Ethnic Conflicts in India, Myanmar and Bangladesh, Border Security, Counter-Insurgency, Human Rights, and Indigenous Studies of India’s Northeast.  

Ankita Ranjan is a Ph.D. scholar at the School of Natural Sciences and Engineering.

She is working with Dr. Tejal Kanitkar. Her broad research interest lies in energy, development and climate change. Her Ph.D. thesis, titled “Exploring the Various Axes of Equity in Climate Change” is focussed upon designing a quantitative methodology for climate change mitigation while addressing the social and economic challenges of developing countries.

Before inducting as a NIAS fellow, Ankita has completed her Master’s in Ecology, Environment and Sustainable Development from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Guwahati in 2016. She holds a Bachelor’s in Chemistry from Miranda House, University of Delhi. Professionally, she has been a content writer and research associate for multiple organizations and projects.

Vishal George is a first year PhD Scholar with the School of Social Sciences at NIAS. His primary research interests lie in Sports Sociology, Urban Studies, Culture Studies, as well as Media Studies. 

Educational Background: 
BA in English Literature, St. Xaviers College (Autonomous), Mumbai
MA in Arts and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi

Thesis Title: 
Youth, Sports, and Urban Spaces: An Ethnography of Youth Sporting Culture in Urban India

Tirthankar is a Doctoral scholar in the education programme at the School of Social Sciences, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bengaluru. His doctoral thesis, "The “Self in Classrooms”: Exploring Identities through Narratives from Teaching of Social Sciences," focuses on the intersection of education, identity, and social location. This research involves auto-ethnography, critical pedagogy, and narrative analysis.

Before joining the PhD program at NIAS,  Tirthankar had gained valuable experience for more than six years in the education sector as a teacher, researcher, curriculum developer, and program design leader in Delhi, Maharashtra and Karnataka. He has worked with government functionaries, educational technology and early-stage social entrepreneurs, contributing to developing innovative educational initiatives.

Surachita Lal is PhD Scholar at NIAS. She is working with Prof. Anitha Kurup. Her research interests lie in Caste, Class and Gender intersectionality, Social exclusion, Sociology of Education. Her current proposed thesis title is “Travelling through the Portal of Engineering Colleges: Experience of Dalit Girls in India (A Study of Uttar Pradesh)

Before inducting as PhD student at NIAS, she has completed her M.Phil. in Women Studies from Tata Instituted of Social Science in 2021. She qualified for NFSC scholarship under UGC net in Sociology, 2020 November. She did her Master of Arts in Sociology from Uttar Pradesh Rajarshi Tondon Open University in 2015 and as well as master in Gender Studies from Ambedkar University Delhi in 2018. She did her Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from University of Delhi.

Navaindu Joshi is a Ph.D. scholar at the School of Social Sciences, NIAS. Prior to this, he completed his Master’s in Education from Azim Premji University and Bachelor’s in Chemistry from Delhi University. 

After completing his Master's, he has also worked in the education sector in the domains of teacher professional development, content development, and content assessment.

His research interest lies in the area of the sociology of education. He is specifically interested in exploring research topics related to school culture, classroom interaction, school and society relations, and the aspirations and social identity of students. 

Navaindu is working under Dr Jeebanlata Salam on the research topic: Life in School-Interaction, Meaning, Identity, and Aspiration.

Aiswarya is a first year Ph.D. scholar at the Education Program, School of Social Science, NIAS.

Thesis title: Life and Learning on the Move:  A Study of Murshidabad-Perumbavoor migration corridor and Family Strategies for Education

Educational background: Master’s in Social Work from Rajiv Gandhi National Institute of Youth Development, Chennai

Zakhiya is a PhD Scholar working with Prof. Anindya Sinha. Her research interests lie in Animal Behavior, Ecology, and Evolution. Her current proposed thesis title is "Primate Worlds: Demographic Structure and Dynamics, Social Networks and Life-History Strategies in Wild Bonnet Macaques.’

Before inducting as PhD student at NIAS, she acquired her integrated Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degree from the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune (IISER Pune, 2015-2020). She did her Master’s Thesis titled ‘Effect of species richness and composition on foraging niche in mixed-species bird flocks' at the Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science (2019-2020) with Prof Kartik Shankar. She qualified GATE 2021 in Ecology and Evolution with an AIR 21 and the TIFR GS2021 examination. Her PhD is funded by the NIAS Fellowship program upon clearing the NIAS entrance process.

She is interested in understanding patterns, processes, and evolution of behavior, currently focused on macaques with a vision to eventually understand the human species and their socio-cultural systems better. For her PhD she will be working on data collected through 2000-2020 from the Bandipur Mudumalai Bonnet Macaque population