After completing my undergraduate degree in Development Studies and Middle Eastern studies at SOAS, I have worked in tech, public sector, and international development in the Middle-East, Pakistan and the UK. My research is based upon some of these experiences and my interest in how digital spaces intersect with the public sphere, examining how the ostracization of minority communities and significant others, specifically the Shia community, has radically evolved in relation to political Muslimness in contemporary Pakistan.
I’m looking at the socio-politico-economic developments in Punjab starting from the Green Revolution to the Khalistan movement from a gender perspective. I focus on how women's roles were re-imagined or re-positioned in Punjabi society during this period. I hold a masters degree in sociology from the Delhi School of Economics and a BA degree in political science from the University of Delhi.
My research, supported by the Cambridge Trust, examines the intersection of science, gender, and ethics in late colonial India. Specifically, I explore indigenous Islamic medical traditions, and how the transformation of Islamic scientific knowledge reconstrued gender relations during this period. I have an undergraduate degree in History from Government College University, Lahore.
My MPhil project looks to explore defense diplomacy and nuclear security concerns in India post-independence. My research interests include military and security issues, conflict and peacebuilding, and diplomacy. I have previously been affiliated with the Ministry of External Affairs, India; The Hindu, Mumbai; and think tanks like Centre for Air Power Studies, New Delhi; and National Institute of Advanced Studies, IISc, Bangalore, among others.
Before coming to Cambridge, I studied at the University of Delhi and worked with Sanjay Hegde, Senior Advocate of the Supreme Court of India and the Indian Civil Liberties Union on issues of constitutional law and social justice. Drawing upon my experience as a researcher, I look to elaborate on the intersection of law, economics, and religion in South Asia as it engages with questions of development, policy, and citizenship.
I am working on the relationship between Indian Muslim Women and the Public Sphere in Northern India post partition. Focusing primarily on identity formation, I explore the written and spoken word as a medium of expression intertwined with religious forces, state authority and media representation. I have completed my bachelor's in Journalism with a minor degree in political science from Lady Shri Ram College for Women, Delhi University.
Deepti is funded by the Cambridge Trust to research adivasi social movements in Netarhat, Jharkhand against state-sponsored militarisation. Under the supervision of Shailaja Fennell, she is exploring the themes of changing landscapes, social-economic mobility, political economy of conservation and rights of the vulnerable. Deepti is also Associate Editor at Cambridge Review of International Affairs and has developed a new hobby of documenting Cambridge and the university through a lens of aesthetics, class divide and spatial politics.
My MPhil dissertation will revolve around politicized knowledge production in post colonial Pakistan during the decade after Partition. I seek to investigate how and why the narrative of history is fabricated and how teaching this in turn impacts identity formation. I hold a BSc in Politics and International Relations from the London School of Economics where I focused on post colonial feminism and empire in world politics.
In my MPhil, I am working on the social and anthropological impact of Sufism in Kashmir, with a particular emphasis on looking at Sufi shrines as centres of faith and peace building within the locale. Before joining Cambridge, I completed a bachelors in English Literature and History from St. Stephen's College, New Delhi.