Akshita is interested in studying women’s roles in Hindu communal, religious and nationalist politics through a focus on emotion as a category of analysis. To this end, she will focus on popular, vernacular material read as part of ritual performances in post-independence India – particularly by women belonging to the mercantile Hindu Marwari community.  Her interests are broadly connected to the fields of gender, religious and literary-historical studies.

Akshita completed her Undergraduate and Masters training in English Literature from Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi University and Shiv Nadar University in India. She spent two years teaching undergraduate courses on Critical Thinking and Academic Writing at Ashoka University before joining the PhD program at SSEAS, UC Berkeley in 2021.