I am an Associate Professor in Anthropology and Museum Studies at the University of Leicester where I co-direct CRIA, an interdisciplinary hub for arts-centred research that foregrounds the value of the arts, both as a form of knowledge and as a force for social transformation.

My work sits at the intersection of art and activism and employs visual, collaborative and arts-based methods to explore social transformation. Recent research includes work on the cultural politics of indigeneity, migration, nationalism, and experimentations with arts-based research methodologies. I am the author of Adivasi Art and Activism: Curation in a Nationalist Age (University of Washington Press, 2022), which examines the role of art in struggles for recognition and citizenship in contemporary India.

My research and creative practice have been supported by the Wenner-Gren Foundation, the British Academy, the Leverhulme Trust, and UK Research Councils (AHRC and ESRC). I have collaborated on a number of film and visual research projects, including Sundarana (2011), Broken Gods (2019), and Mahra Pichchar (2021).

Since 2020, I have co-led Budhan Stories, an initiative with Budhan Theatre that functions as a living archive of indigenous praxis and a space of political engagement through community-led filmmaking. Together with a number of collaborators, I am currently working towards building a platform for arts-based and community-led research: a space for doing research otherwise, experimenting with new possibilities and knowledge forms grounded in embodied practice.

Please contact me here if you would like a copy of my current CV

You can find details of my past and current research projects, teaching and publications here.