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Steering Commitee

Our 2024-2025 Steering Committee members are: Saiba Varma (Anthropology), Shermin de Silva (EBE), Rishika Mehrishi (Theatre & Dance), Silpa Mukherjee (Film), Teevrat Garg (GPS), Gaurav Khanna (GPS), Gareth Nellis (Political Science), and Aftab Jassal (Anthropology).

 

Student Coordinators:

Undergraduate students coordinators: Ananya Kandikonda, Bhavika Ailawadi, and Khushi Kumra

 

Saiba Varma is an Associate Professor of the Psychological/Medical Anthropology subfield and the Vice Chair of Undergraduate Studies. She is a medical and cultural anthropologist working on questions of violence, medicine, psychiatry, and politics as they pertain to Indian-controlled Kashmir and South Asia more generally. At UCSD, Saiba teach courses on global health and inequality; medical and psychological anthropology; humanitarianism; conflict and health; affects and emotions.

 

Teevrat Garg is an Assistant Professor of Economics at the School of Global Policy and Strategy at the University of California in San Diego. His research is at the intersection of environmental and development economics with an emphasis on the role of public policy and institutions in fostering sustainable development and helping the poor cope with environmental stressors such as heat, air and water pollution. In recent years, he has conducted research in Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Mexico and Uganda. Prior to joining UC San Diego, Teevrat was a postdoctoral fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He received a B.A. in Economics (with Honors) and a B.S in Mathematics from Lafayette College in 2010, and a PhD. in Applied Economics and Management from Cornell University in 2015.

 

Gaurav Khanna is an Assistant Professor of Economics at UCSD’s School of Global Policy and Strategy. His interests lie in Development Economics, Labor Economics and Applied Econometrics. His research focuses on education, migration, infrastructure, and conflict. He is a faculty affiliate at the Center for Effective Global Action, and a Non-resident Fellow at the Center for Global Development. 

 

Aftab Jassal is an anthropologist of religion, with longstanding research experience and interest in the Himalayas, specifically, Uttarakhand, a north Indian state bordering Tibet and Nepal. His research examines varying modes and registers of interaction between person, place, and divinity in South Asia. Drawing on anthropological and performance studies approaches, he is interested in how Hindu communities construct and enliven multiple social, ontological, and aesthetic realities through narrative and ritual performance, including ritual storytelling and possession.

Shermin de Silva is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Ecology, Behavior & Evolution.
Her current research is largely on elephants in Asia (and Sri Lanka).
Rishika Mehrishi is an Assistant Professor of Performance Studies in the Department of Theatre + Dance. Her research explores how performances centered on animals shape contemporary discourses on caste, religion, gender, and sexuality in India and its diasporas.
Silpa Mukherjee is an Assistant Professor of Film and Media, Global South, and Cultural Studies in the Literature Department. Her research and teaching interests include feminist historiography, informal media industries, media beyond legality, South Asian cinema, South Asian media culture in diaspora, and South by South networks.
Gareth Nellis is an Assistant Professor of Political Science. His research focuses on elections as instruments of inclusion or exclusion in developing democracies, including India