I am a sociocultural anthropologist trained at the University of Oxford specializing in the anthropology of religion and political anthropology. My research focuses on borderlands, transnational Islam, and charity & humanitarianism. It is undergirded by critical theory and methodological approaches that seek to draw out relational geographies shaped by the movement of ideas and ideologies, people and capital.

More information about Radhika Gupta

I am a sociocultural anthropologist trained at the University of Oxford specializing in the anthropology of religion and political anthropology. My research focuses on borderlands, transnational Islam, and charity & humanitarianism. It is undergirded by critical theory and methodological approaches that seek to draw out relational geographies shaped by the movement of ideas and ideologies, people and capital.

My book Freedom in Captivity: Negotiations of Belonging along Kashmir’s Frontier (Cambridge University Press, 2023) asks how borderland dwellers inhabit militarized frontiers without resisting the captivity engendered by borders. It focuses on the Shia Muslims of Kargil (Ladakh) living along the India-Pakistan border and examines how their affective attachments, political imaginaries, and ethical claims-making are shaped by transregional ideas, ideologies, and connections to negotiate and insist on their belonging to India. The book is an invitation to reimagine borderlands as cartographies of ideas.  

My current project Entangled Universals of Transnational Islamic charity funded by a European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator Grant takes my interest in transnational Islam in a new direction. It explores how Islamic charity and humanitarianism mobilise and differentiate the abstract category of humanity within neoliberal aid regimes to address human suffering against the backdrop of significant geopolitical shifts. 

I have an abiding passion for doing research in and on the Himalayan region. This is slow cooking a side project on tourism in Ladakh. I am also involved in a project on Highland Heritage in Bhutan led by the Royal Thimphu College.

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Prior to joining academia, I worked for seven years in the field of international development on water, forestry, and indigenous peoples rights.

Curriculum vitae

Education

• DPhil Sociocultural Anthropology (2011), University of Oxford
• MSc Development Studies (2000), London School of Economics and Political Science
• MPhil and M.A Sociology (1999), Department of Sociology, Delhi School of Economics

Work Experience

• Research Fellow (2013-2017), Centre for Modern Indian Studies, Goettingen University, Germany
• Post-doctoral Research Fellow (2011-2013), Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, Germant
• Coordinator, Equity and Rights (2004-2007), International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, Kathmandu, Nepal
• Programme Officer (2000-2004), Winrock International India, New Delhi.