SOAS, University of London (The School of Oriental and African Studies)

Teaching

Programmes Convened

• MA in Migration and Diaspora Studies

Courses Taught

• African and Asian Cultures in Britain
• African and Asian Cultures in the Diaspora
• African and Asian Diasporas in the Contemporary World
• African and Asian Diasporas in the Modern World
• Societies and Cultures of Southern Africa
• The Anthropology of African and Asian Communities in British Society

PhD Students supervised

• Chiara Arnavas,
• Nadeem Karkabi,
• Nayantara Premakumar,
• Nydia Swaby, The ‘black’ British women’s movement and the politics of ‘belonging’, ‘identity’, and ‘home’
• Paola Prestioni,
• Shirley N. A. Sackey, Collective Agency: Transnational Social Organization Amongst Ghanaians in London and New York
• Špela Drnovšek Zorko, Tracing the gendered ‘home’ through diasporic family stories of Yugoslavia.

Research

In my thesis, I studied the historical background to the construction of ‘Indianness’ in South Africa up until 1952, where the idea of community was evoked through reinscibing cultural traditions brought from India, as well as being shaped by the new ways of life that developed in South Africa. In particular, I looked at why a small but significant group of Indian South Africans joined the South African Communist Party. I considered the ways that sections of the Indian community were radicalised through fighting for democratic rights and citizenship in South Africa, and the complex social, cultural and political influences that were woven into new forms of resistance in their social landscape. I also traced the emergence of a ‘diasporic’ consciousness at certain points in time, where Gandhi became a figurehead for a wider politics of belonging. I have recently been working on the changing character of disaporic consciousness amongst Indian South Africans, where, in the 1940s, it was tied to a socialist internationalism, rather than its current manifestation, where it is often associated with a right-wing Hindu nationalism. This has also led to me to research similarities and differences between Indian and Jewish communities in South Africa, and their historical conceptions of homeland and belonging. My next research project involves looking at the various Indian communities that have migrated to south London, and their changing conceptions of community, home and belonging. One aspect of this that I find particularly interesting is changing ideas of the ‘nation’ in Britain relation to migrant populations.

Expertise

For help in contacting SOAS academics and advice on services to business and the community, please contact SOAS Enterprise on +44(0)20 7898 4837 or email enterprise@soas.ac.uk.
For all press and media enquiries please call +44 (0)20 7898 4956/4135 or email comms@soas.ac.uk

Available for

Regional Expertise

• Africa
• South Asia

Country Expertise

• India
• South Africa

Languages

Publications