Nikita is a Research Associate on AdaptAIR, an ERC Synergy Grant project examining Artificial Ice Reservoirs as climate change adaptation tools across the Himalayas. Working at the intersection of geography and development studies, Nikita is interested in how power is inscribed in institutions, and how this shapes the implementation of government programmes on the ground.

Before joining AdaptAIR, Nikita researched government sanitation interventions in South Asia, examining how caste and gender shape sanitation policy processes at the point of implementation. She is also interested in political ecology, labour, affect, and religion, and how these are embedded in geographies. 

Nikita has taught and convened political geography to undergraduate students, with teaching spanning geopolitics, political ecology, postcolonialism, decolonisation, and conflict. Her teaching draws on her research background to bring critical, empirically grounded perspectives to these debates.

Research 

• Water
• Sanitation
• Gender
• Caste
• Climate Change
• Governance