Nikita Arora

DPhil Student

Hertford College

nikita.arora@hertford.ox.ac.uk

Research Topic

Towards a History of the Body in British Colonial Punjab (1849-1947)

For my doctoral project, I'm researching the history of the body, gender, and sexuality in British Colonial Punjab, through history of medicine as medical ideas, and history of gender and sexuality. Methodologically, I draw from theories of embodiment, phenomenology, and feminist and queer critical theory, along with archival historical research. My sources include Punjabi-language writings on the body, health, and domesticity, as well as British-authored records of military campaigns and administration in the Punjab. To know more about my work, you can listen to a podcast here: Sikh Archive. More broadly, I'm interested in histories of the body, gender and sexuality, personhood, and human-nonhuman relationships. My book project (in progress) was long listed for the Nan Shepherd Prize for Nature Writing in 2021. I update this link (Linktree) for new essays, articles, poems, and my other writings regularly: Nikita Azad

My PhD is funded by the Wellcome Trust Doctoral Studentship, during which, I spent one semester at Columbia University as a Visiting PhD Fellow (January-May 2023). I have completed a master's in History of Science, Medicine, and Technology at Oxford (2020) and a master's in Women's Studies at Oxford (2019) with a high distinction, both funded by the Rhodes Trust. I have a First Honours' bachelor's in English Literature, Mathematics, and Politics from Government College for Girls, Patiala, India. I have also received other academic awards from my college (Hertford) and charitable bodies for my PhD work.

I am also the author of Dakhalandazi, a Punjabi essay collection on gender-based violence in Punjab and North India, published by Autumn Art in September 2022. My work and activism on gender in India has been featured in The Guardian, BBC, and The Independent, among others. Most of my writings in Punjabi are published in the Punjabi Tribune.

Academic Publications:

“The curious case of Patnibrata men: Revisiting masculinity in Sikh and Punjabi reformist literature, c. 1925–1939,” Sikh Formations (2022)
“Sustaining a Nonviolent Self: Mahatma Gandhi, Madeleine Slade, and Manu Gandhi,” History Workshop Journal (2022)

Other Publications (Select):

“The Many Meanings of Moss,” The Guardian
“Growing a Sky-heart,” The Willowherb Review
“A Self perched on Trees,” Quince Magazine

Podcasts:

When was the last time you touched moss? Nikita Azad in conversation with Krys Boyd for Kera Think
Supernature: Moss, Nikita Azad in conversation with Lauren Laverne for BBC Radio 6
The Many Meanings of Moss, The Guardian Audio Long Read

Conference Presentations (Select):

Loving sex and sexual love: Men of Medicine in late colonial Punjab, South Asia Conference, University of Wisconsin-Madison (Invited but Declined) 2022
Medical Knowledges and Embodied Identities in Late Colonial Punjab, British Society for the History of Science, Queen’s University, Belfast, July 2022
Revisiting Sikh and Punjabi Masculinity, Punjab Research Group, University of Oxford, March 2022 (Best Presenter)
Eat and Exercise: Ayurveda in late colonial Punjabi literature, History of Science, Medicine, and Technology Graduate Conference, University of Oxford 2021
The Body in colonial Punjabi literature, History of Science, Medicine, and Technology Graduate Conference, University of Oxford 2021
Dirty bodies, bloody women: Medicalising Menstruation in colonial India, Canadian Society for the History of Medicine,Western University, June 2020 [cancelled due to Covid-19]
Dirty bodies, bloody women: Medicalising Menstruation in colonial India, British Association for South Asian Studies, University of Southampton, April 2020 [cancelled due to Covid-19]
Bleeding in the Time of Empire: Punjabi Women and the Medicalisation of Menstruation, Joint Atlantic Seminar in the History of Medicine, Harvard University and Northeastern University, October 2019