Dr Kriti Kapila

Kriti Kapila is a Lecturer in Anthropology and Law at King's India Institute and the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine. She is currently on sabbatical as a Member of the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton (2023-24). She is Visiting Professor at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), Paris and was previously Visiting Professor at the Laboratoire d'Anthropologie Sociale at the College de France (January - June 2022).

Kriti did her PhD at the London School of Economics and her master's at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Prior to working at King's, she held a Senior Research Associate position at the Institute of Global Health, University College London, and a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Department of Social Anthropology at the University of Cambridge. Kriti chairs the Society for Ethnographic Theory.

Research

• Anthropology of the State
• Law and Anthropology
• Ethnographic Theory
• Anthropology of Science and Technology
• Anthropology of the Digital
• Contemporary India

Kriti is the author of Nullius: The Anthropology of Ownership, Sovereignty, and the Law in India (HAU Books, Chicago, 2022) and has written extensively on the politics of recognition and indigeneity. She is currently completing a book manuscript on the anthropology of ancient DNA and genomic medicine in India. Her new research focuses on digital statemaking in India in the wake of biometrics (Aadhaar).

Teaching

Kriti has previously taught a range of undergraduate and postgraduate modules, including The Politics of Medicine, The Politics of Life and Death, Law and Social Change in India, and India in the World: Anthropological Perspectives.

PhD supervision

Kriti welcomes PhD applications within her research areas and cognate topics.

Further details

See Kriti's research profile