Shivangi Kaushik

I am a researcher following persons and learning from everyday experiences histories, of individuals and distinct ethnolinguistic communities from distinct states of Northeast India. My research brings together extensive archival work analyzing colonial and post-independence documents, and oral histories with long-term ethnographic fieldwork among students from Northeast India in Delhi. My archival research traces the struggles for recognition, autonomy, and identity among borderland communities, foregrounding the voices of community leaders and contesting colonial and state-imposed classifications. Through participant observation, interviews, and collaborative storytelling, my ethnographic work explores how migrant individuals and young students negotiate kinship, faith, gender, and belonging in urban spaces, and how intergenerational memories and community networks shape their lives. I am committed to reflexive, dialogical anthropology attentive to my own positionality and to the narratives of my collaborators. My work highlights the persistence and transformation of kin and community ties, the ambivalence of solidarity and obligation, and the creative ways migrants reimagine identity and relatedness in contexts of alienation and change.

Completed October 2025.