Kaul, Nitasha | University of Westminster

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Nitasha Kaul is a widely-travelled multidisciplinary academic, novelist, and public intellectual. She is Chair Professor in Politics, International Relations and Critical Interdisciplinary Studies, and Director of the Centre for the Study of Democracy (CSD) at the University of Westminster, London. She holds a BA Honours in Economics from SRCC, University of Delhi, an MSc (Economics) with a specialisation in Public Policy and a Joint PhD in Economics & Philosophy from University of Hull and has previously been a tenured Assistant Professor in Economics at the Bristol Business School and Associate Professor in Creative Writing in Bhutan.

Over the last three decades, she has published widely on themes relating to democracy, political economy, Hindutva/Indian politics, misogyny and democracy, AI technology and Artificial Intelligence epistemology, identity, rise of global right-wing nationalism, postcolonial international relations, authoritarianism, transnational repression, small states in geopolitics, regions of Bhutan, Kerala, and Kashmir.

At Westminster, Professor Kaul teaches postgraduate modules including "State, Politics and Violence" and "Diplomacy, Crises and Global Challenges" for MA students in Politics and International Relations and Diplomacy and Global Politics. She has supervised numerous doctoral students to completion on topics ranging from small state foreign policy to postcolonial approaches to conflict zones, and serves as internal and external PhD examiner for multiple UK and international universities.

Professor Kaul has secured competitive research funding from prestigious bodies including the British Academy (Knowledge Frontiers Symposia Follow-on Funding; Leverhulme Small Research Grants), Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC GCRF International Development Research Networking Scheme Large Grant), and Higher Education Innovation Funding (HEIF) from Research England. Her current research projects include work on AI and democracy, transnational repression, and democratic innovations in South Asia. She has consultation and research knowledge exchange experience with the UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), US State Department, UK Cabinet Office, and international organisations including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Freedom House.

In October 2019, Professor Kaul was invited to provide expert witness testimony to the US House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs on "Human Rights in South Asia." Her research has been featured in major international media including The New York Times, The Guardian, Financial Times, Time Magazine, BBC, Al Jazeera, and The Independent. She is a member of the INSAAN Network (India and South Asia Analysts Network), a policy-focused network aimed at UK Government and think-tank sectors.

Across the university, Professor Kaul serves on the Social Sciences Research and Knowledge Exchange Committee and contributes to the SDG Dialogue Initiative. She is committed to advancing rigorous and ethical knowledge-making through her research, teaching, and public engagement. Beyond Westminster, she serves on the editorial boards of International Studies Review (ISA) and HIMALAYA (ANHS), is a Trustee and Director of Tibet Watch UK, and holds memberships in major international scholarly associations including the International Studies Association (ISA), British International Studies Association (BISA), European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR), and numerous professional organisations.

Professor Kaul is also an accomplished novelist and creative writer. Her debut novel Residue (about Kashmiris outside of Kashmir) was shortlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize in 2009, and her second novel Future Tense (Harper Collins India, 2020) explores the human cost of conflict in Kashmir. She has co-edited groundbreaking volumes including Can You Hear Kashmiri Women Speak? Narratives of Resistance and Resilience (2020) and Contemporary Colonialities: Kurds and Kashmiris (2025).

Previously, Professor Kaul held academic positions in Creative Writing at Royal Thimphu College (Bhutan) and in Economics at the University of the West of England and University of Bath. She has held Visiting Fellowships at institutions including the Australian National University, Centre for Bhutan Studies, and has been invited to speak at universities worldwide including Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, Georgetown, and Yale.

Research interests:

Democracy and democratic innovations in South Asia

Authoritarianism, populism, and the erosion of democratic norms

Kashmir: conflict, sovereignty, human rights, and women's experiences

Small states in international relations (Bhutan, Nepal, Himalayan geopolitics)

Postcolonial politics and international relations theory

Gender, misogyny, and political power

Hindu nationalism (Hindutva) and majoritarianism in India

Artificial intelligence, democracy, and ethics

Transnational repression and academic freedom

Political boundaries, borders, and state violence

Creative writing and conflict narratives

Fellowships and Awards (selection):

British Academy Knowledge Frontiers Symposia Follow-on Funding Grant (2023-2024)

British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grants (2017-2018, 2019-2020)

Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) GCRF International Development Research Networking Scheme Large Grant (2020-2022)

Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021: Ranked 4th for Impact in Politics and International Studies in the UK

Research and Knowledge Exchange Award, School of Social Sciences, University of Westminster (2022)

Man Asian Literary Prize Shortlist Award (2009) for novel Residue

Recipient of numerous travel grants from British Academy, ESRC, International Studies Association, Stanford University, and others

Selected Publications

Books and Edited Volumes

Kaul, N. (co-edited with D. Anand) (2025). Contemporary Colonialities: Kurds and Kashmiris. London: University of Westminster Press. Open access. https://doi.org/10.16997/book70

Kaul, N. (2020). Future Tense. Harper Collins India. Literary Fiction.

Kaul, N. (co-edited with A. Zia) (2020). Can You Hear Kashmiri Women Speak? Narratives of Resistance and Resilience. New Delhi: Women Unlimited/Kali for Women Press.

Kaul, N. (2014). Residue. New Delhi: Rupa Publications. [Shortlisted for Man Asian Literary Prize 2009]

Kaul, N. (2007). Imagining Economics Otherwise: Encounters with identity/difference. London: Routledge.

Recent Academic Articles (small selection)

Kaul, N. and Thornton, M. (2025). "Construction and control of cartographic imaginaries: Kashmir and Taiwan." Review of International Studies. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0260210525000129

Kaul, N. and Cachelin, S. (2024). "Non-Lethal Weapons and the Sensory Repression of Dissent in Democracies." Security Dialogue, 55(4), 368-385.

Kaul, N. and Buchanan, T. (2023). "Misogyny, Authoritarianism, and Climate Change." Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy, 23(2), 308-333.

Kaul, N. (2022). "3Es for AI: Economics, Explanation, Epistemology." Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence. https://doi.org/10.3389/frai.2022.833238

Kaul, N. (2022). "Beyond India and China: Bhutan as a Small State in International Relations." International Relations of the Asia-Pacific, 22(2), 297-337.

Kaul, N. (2021). "The Misogyny of Authoritarians in Contemporary Democracies." International Studies Review, 23(4), 1619-1645.

Kaul, N. (2021). "'Where is Bhutan?': The Production of Bhutan's Asymmetrical Inbetweenness in Geopolitics." Journal of Asian Studies, 80(2), 317-336.

Policy Reports and Public Scholarship

Written Testimony for US House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs hearing on "Human Rights in South Asia" (October 2019)

Expert contributions to The Conversation, Foreign Policy, Al Jazeera, Financial Times, The Guardian, Time Magazine

Expert commentary featured in BBC, CNN, Al Jazeera, France 24, and numerous other international media

Please see the complete CV at https://westminster.academia.edu/NitashaKaul/CurriculumVitae that includes details of all publications, public intellectual work, mentoring, scholarly service, and other professional or public engagement work.

Teaching

7 completed PhD supervisions, 4 ongoing PhD supervisions, 2 at submission stage; External examiner for PhDs at Universities of St. Andrews, Edinburgh, IIT-Kharagpur, City University of Hong Kong.

MA/BA teaching in Politics & IR at Westminster, including MA Module Leadership for postgraduate modules in Politics/IR and Diplomacy such as ‘The State, Politics and Violence’, ‘Postcolonial International Relations’, 'Diplomacy, Crises and Global Challenges'.

Details -

Professor Nitasha Kaul's teaching career spans over 26 years, beginning in 1998 as a Graduate Teaching Assistant at the University of Hull while pursuing her joint PhD in Economics and Philosophy. During these formative years (1998-2002), she gained extensive experience teaching a wide range of economics modules to undergraduate students, from first-year introductory courses in microeconomics and macroeconomics to advanced third-year modules in dynamic economic development. Teaching classes of 30 to 60 students across multiple modules simultaneously, she developed expertise in both theoretical and applied economics, covering topics from environmental economics and natural resources to development economics and welfare economics. This period also saw her taking on administrative responsibilities as a member of the Staff-Student Committee, demonstrating early commitment to university governance.

Following the completion of her PhD in 2003, Professor Kaul held teaching positions at the University of Bath's Department of Economics and International Development, first as a seminar tutor teaching Policy and Politics to 110 second-year students, and then as a lecturer delivering Economic Thought and Policy. In 2002, she began what would become a four-year tenure as a full-time permanent Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Economics at the University of the West of England's Bristol Business School. There, she taught large cohorts of students, including 200 first-year social science undergraduates in Economic Principles and Applications, while also delivering more specialized courses like Applied Economics to third-year joint honours students. During this period, she supervised 12 final year undergraduate dissertations on diverse topics and took on significant administrative roles, serving as the School of Economics representative on the Faculty Library Advisory Committee and as a member of the School Program Review Board. She also co-ordinated the Political Economy research group at the Centre for Research in Economics and was an active member of the Women's Research Network. It was during this time that she completed her Post Graduate Certificate in Teaching and Learning with Distinction (2002-2003), which included three modules, a year-long portfolio, and teaching observations, cementing her pedagogical foundation.

In 2007, Professor Kaul affiliated with the CSD at the University of Westminster as she pursued grant-funded research on democratisation in the Himalayas, with special focus on Bhutan. She also worked on South Asian politics more broadly at this time, writing in various genres, and her work of political fiction, Residue, was shortlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize in 2009. For a stint in 2010-2011, Professor Kaul also took up a position as Associate Professor in Creative Writing at Royal Thimphu College in Bhutan. This was a groundbreaking appointment where she designed and delivered the first ever university-level creative writing course in the country. Teaching 60 second-year BA Honours students in "Creative Writing: Fiction and Non-Fiction" for 10 hours per week, alongside an "Orientation to College Learning" module for 45 first-year students, she created an entirely new curriculum from scratch. The success of this initiative resulted in the publication of "November Light: An Anthology of Creative Writing from Bhutan" (2010), a collection that emerged from her students' work and contributed to Bhutanese literary culture for the youth. This experience demonstrated her ability to establish new academic programs in challenging contexts and her commitment to fostering creative expression in diverse cultural settings.

From 2012 onwards, Professor Kaul association with CSD at the University of included significant teaching commitments in addition to scholarly work. Throughout most of this period, she consistently taught two core postgraduate modules that have become signatures of her teaching: "State, Politics and Violence" and "Postcolonial International Relations? Theories and Concepts," delivered to MA students in Politics and International Relations. Student numbers in these modules have ranged from 10 to 47 students, reflecting both specialized seminars and larger cohorts. Between 2017 and 2018, she also taught a large undergraduate module, "Postcolonial Politics and International Relations," to 106 final-year BA students, while simultaneously managing postgraduate teaching and PhD supervision.

In recent years, Professor Kaul has expanded her teaching portfolio to include the MA in Diplomacy and Global Politics, co-designing and delivering a new core module "Diplomacy, Crises and Global Challenges" as a short burst module, which has consistently been appreciated by students. She has also contributed guest lectures across various programs, including teaching on "Gender, State, Violence, and War" for undergraduate International Relations students, and "Kerala People's Planning" for the MA module on Democratic Innovations. Her teaching extends beyond the University of Westminster through invited guest lectures at institutions including Queen's University Canada, where she taught on "Multiculturalism and Diaspora in India, UK, and Beyond" in 2023. Additionally, in February 2018, she delivered a series of lectures for the Tri-Service University Short Course Programme for the UK Ministry of Defence on "Asia, Africa and Latin America: Dynamism and Change in the Global South," demonstrating her engagement with professional military education.

Professor Kaul's doctoral supervision represents a particularly significant dimension of her teaching career. Since beginning PhD supervision at Westminster, she has successfully guided seven doctoral students to completion, with six currently under supervision at different stages. Her completed PhD supervisions span diverse topics including postcolonial critiques of tear gas use, Kazakhstan's foreign policy since independence, contested politics of militarisation in Kashmir, postcolonial approaches to Nepal's geopolitics, politics of education and national identity in Brazil under Bolsonaro, coloniality in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir, and judicial decision-making in Brazil. Her current doctoral students have work on topics including the Maldives as a democratising small state, Bhutan's foreign policy choices, politics of education in Bhutan, China's rise in International Relations Theory, disinformation as state policy, and BJP and protests in India. Several of her PhD students have received prestigious scholarships, including two students who were awarded the University of Westminster's Globally Engaged Research (GER) Scholarship. She also serves as internal PhD assessor for the department and has been external examiner for PhDs at institutions including City University of Hong Kong (2024), Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (2024), University of Edinburgh (2018), University of Westminster (2019, 2021), and University of St. Andrews (2020).

Beyond direct teaching responsibilities, Professor Kaul has taken on extensive mentoring and administrative roles. She has served as Postdoctoral Mentor for a Westminster Research Fellow who was subsequently awarded a British Academy Fellowship, and mentored Visiting CSD Fellows from the University of Berne, Switzerland. She has served on selection and interview committees for PhD studentships through the School of Social Sciences, Centre for the Study of Democracy, and the Quintin Hogg Trust. Her administrative contributions include membership on the Social Sciences Research and Knowledge Exchange Committee, participation in the SDG Dialogue Initiative, and serving on assessment panels for research development awards and fellowship applications. She has also been involved in staff development and professional education, delivering a mentoring lecture for UK PhD students on "Being an Academic, Becoming an Academic: Excelling with Ethics" at the Techne Congress (Techne Doctoral Training Partnership by AHRC/UKRI) in January 2023.

Professor Kaul's pedagogical excellence has been formally recognised through several awards and honors. In 2020, she received the "Recognising Women of Westminster Award" for "Exceptional contribution to Westminster Community" in the category "Breaking the Mould." In 2018, she was honored with the "Staff Appreciation Award" from the Students' Union in recognition of excellent support of students. She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA), with Certificate Recognition Reference PR125248, recognizing her attainment against the UK Professional Standards Framework for teaching and learning support in higher education. Her commitment to pedagogical development is evidenced over a long period of time, by her participation in various training programs, including research supervision training at the University of the West of England in 2004 and courses on new technologies to support teaching at the University of Hull in 2002.

Throughout her career, Professor Kaul has demonstrated remarkable versatility in teaching across disciplines—from economics to politics and international relations to creative writing—and across educational levels from first-year undergraduates to doctoral students. Her teaching has spanned five countries (United Kingdom, Bhutan, and through guest lectures in the United States, Canada, and India, and beyond), with class sizes ranging from intimate seminars of 10 students to large lecture courses of 200 students. Her pedagogical approach integrates her extensive research into teaching, bringing cutting-edge scholarship on democracy, authoritarianism, postcolonial politics, gender and conflict, and small states into the classroom. She has pioneered new curricula (such as the creative writing program in Bhutan and the Diplomacy, Crises and Global Challenges module at Westminster), supervised diverse and internationally-focused doctoral research, and maintained a sustained commitment to supporting students from diverse backgrounds and research interests. Her teaching career reflects not only disciplinary expertise but also a deep commitment to fostering critical thinking, interdisciplinary engagement, and the development of the next generation of scholars and practitioners in politics, international relations, and beyond.

Please see the complete CV https://westminster.academia.edu/NitashaKaul/CurriculumVitae that includes details of all publications, public intellectual work, mentoring, scholarly service, and other professional or public engagement work.

Research

She has over 155 publications including the academic monograph 'Imagining Economics Otherwise: encounters with identity/difference' (2007), critically acclaimed works of political fiction (Man Asian Literary Prize shortlisted novel 'Residue', 2014 and 'Future Tense', 2020), co-edited scholarly volumes ('Can you hear Kashmiri Women Speak? Narratives of Resistance and Resilience', 2020; 'The Himalayas from its edges: networks, identities, and place-making', 2024; 'Contemporary Colonialities: Kurds and Kashmiris', 2025), numerous book chapters in groundbreaking collections, and peer-reviewed articles in high-impact journals across social sciences and humanities.

Originally from Kashmir, educated in India and the UK, and engaging with global audiences, she has significant expertise on the topics of democracy and authoritarianism, gender, security and geopolitics, human rights and conflict. Her work has provided original analytical accounts focused on tracing the links between democratic backsliding, political polarisation, repression of rights, and insecurity; conceptual innovations such as "Hindutva-Development mix and the Modi myth", "Econonationalism", "Postcolonial Neoliberal Nationalism", "Electorally Legitimated Misogynist Authoritarian (ELMA)", "cartographic imaginaries", "sensory repression" have made key contributions to the studies of power and strategy in democracies turning to authoritarianism.

She has led research projects funded by bodies including the AHRC and The British Academy, undertaken research assessment for major international bodies (European Research Council, Swedish Research Council, AHRC, ESRC, ISRF and several UKRI programmes relating to democracy and AI such as SALIENT, BRAID DOT and Turing AI Fellowships), and reviewed research for 45+ journals and major publishers.

Details --

Over 155 publications, including 7 single-authored or edited scholarly and literary books, book chapters in numerous critical and ground-breaking edited collections, plus over 50 peer-reviewed original research articles in SHAPE journals across humanities and social science disciplines such as International Studies Review, Review of International Studies, Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy, Critical Studies on Security, Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence, International Relations of the Asia-Pacific, Indian Politics & Policy, Economic & Political Weekly, Journal of Labor and Society, Seminar, South Asian Diaspora, Gender and Development, Cambridge Journal of Economics, Rethinking Marxism, The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, Security Dialogue, Itinerario, Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society, Feminist Review, Journal of Asian Studies.

Selected Recent Articles

"Construction and control of cartographic imaginaries: Kashmir and Taiwan" (Review of International Studies, 2025); "Non-Lethal Weapons and the Sensory Repression of Dissent in Democracies" (Security Dialogue, 2024); "Misogyny, Authoritarianism, and Climate Change" (Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy, 2023); "Beyond India and China: Bhutan as a Small State in International Relations" (International Relations of the Asia-Pacific, 2022); "Coloniality And/As Development in Kashmir: Econonationalism" (Feminist Review, 2021); "The Misogyny of Authoritarians in Contemporary Democracies" (International Studies Review, 2021); "The Political Project of Postcolonial Neoliberal Nationalism" (Indian Politics & Policy, 2019); "Rise of the Political Right in India: Hindutva-Development Mix, Modi Myth, And Dualities" (Journal of Labor and Society, 2017).

Impact Case Study for REF 2021 contributed to University of Westminster being ranked 4th in the UK for Politics and International Studies in 2022, UoW HEIF Research England Award 2024, British Academy Knowledge Frontiers Award for SHAPE researchers (2023), UoW Research and Knowledge Exchange Award 2022, College Research Directors (CRD) Award 2021, British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grant 2019-20/2022-23, Recognising Women of Westminster 2020 Award, Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition for' Outstanding and Invaluable Service to Community' by U.S. Congress 2020, Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) Award 2020-2022, School of Social Sciences, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, University of Westminster, British Academy (UK-India) Seed Funding Grant, British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grant 2017-18, Erasmus+ (European Commission/ British Council) Staff Teaching Mobility Grant, British Academy (BASIS) Board for Academy Sponsored Institutes and Societies Grant, Man Asian Literary Prize Shortlist Award, British Association for South Asian Studies (BASAS) Grant, Faculty of Humanities, Languages, and Social Sciences, University of the West of England, Consultation of Economists' Papers Project materials in Duke's Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library Grant, Duke University, USA, Staff Appreciation Award from UoW MA students 2018, UoW-Smithsonian partnership grant in 2022/23 for research at the Library of Congress and Smithsonian institutions.

Panel Member, Grants Referee, and Assessor for UK and European Research Funding Bodies

Panel Member, UKRI (UK Research and Innovation) Interdisciplinary Assessment College (IAC); Assessor, Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Panel on BRAID DOT: responsible AI collaborations with US researchers; Peer Reviewer, Building a Secure And Resilient World: Research and Coordination (SALIENT), UKRI-funded UK national security and resilience research Hub; Independent Social Research Foundation (ISRF) Grants Referee; European Research Council (ERC) (European Commission) Grants Referee; Member of the Peer Review College (PRC) at Arts and Humanities Research Council (PRC, AHRC); Member of the Peer Review College (PRC) at Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC); Small Grants Committee, ANHS (The Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies); Trans-Atlantic Platform for Social Sciences and Humanities (T-AP), Democracy, Governance & Trust Scheme (DGT), UKRI (UK Research and Innovation), Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet), Assessment for Democracy and Societal Resilience Projects, Review Panel Member.

Publications

For details of all my research outputs, visit my WestminsterResearch profile.