Prof. Dr. Mallika Shakya

Mallika Shakya is a social and economic anthropologist trained in LSE, University of Oxford and University of Glasgow. She works on two distinct themes: (i) social embedding of industrialisation and labour movements, and (ii) poetic imaginations of nation and border in South Asia. Her book “Death of an Industry: The Cultural Politics of Garment Manufacturing during the Maoist Revolution in Nepal” was published by Cambridge University Press in 2018 and has been widely reviewed in academic journals academically. It is also listed as one of the 100 all-time-classics on Nepal. Before returning to academia, she worked for the World Bank and UNICEF for twelve years covering southern and western Africa, East and South Asia and also Eastern Europe. She is currently the Editor-In-Charge of Society and Culture in South Asia (SCSA) with Sage, and also serves in the editorial committees of Dialectical Anthropology (DA), European Bulletin of Himalayan Research (EBHR) and the Human Economy book series (Berghahn Books). She pursues interdisciplinary research methods and has been collaborating with poets and fiction- writers, film-makers and artists, and medical professionals especially in her research on the borders within South Asia.

see you also :Mallika Shakya – South Asian University (sau.int)

Educational Background

2008	PhD, Economic Anthropology/Development Studies, London School of Economics and Political
1998	M.Phil, Economic Planning and Development, University of Glasgow
1995	Bachelor of Arts and Humanities, Padma Kanya College, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu
1992	Intermediate of Arts and Humanities, Padma Kanya College, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu

Work Experience

2024-2025	Guest Professor, Professor (W2) for the Department of Social Sciences, Humanities, and Theology SDAC program, FAU Erlangen-Nurnberg, Germany
2013-2024	Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, South Asian University, Delhi
2010-2012	Senior Lecturer and Human Economy Fellow, Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Pretoria, South Africa
2010-2013	Research Fellow, Wolfson College, University of Oxford
2004-2012	Industry Specialist, International Trade Department, The World Bank headquarters
2003	Newsreader and reporter, BBC Nepali Service, London
1993-2001	Economic and Social Policy Specialist, UNICEF Regional Office for South Asia

Research, Teaching, and Supervision

Research Project

(2021-2026) Anti-Microbial Resistance and Labour Migrant across Health Boundaries in Northern South Asia. With Aarhus University, University of Delhi, and BP Koirala Institute of Health Sciences.

Teaching

2024-2025	MA courses (FAU University)	What is South Asia Poetics and Anthropology: Voices from the Margins
2013-2024	MA courses (SAU University)	Economy and Society Sociology of South Asia Nationalism and Regionalism in South Asia Belonging and Border  Introduction to South Asia-
2024-2024	PhD courses (SAU University)	Anthropology of Money and Work

Publications

Single – Authored Books and Edited Volumes

2022	“Poetic Imagining(s) of South Asia: Writing Nations through Sensibilities of Resistance” Society and Culture in South Asia: Sage Publications. Vol. 9. Issue 1. July 2022.
2018	Death of an Industry: The cultural politics of garment manufacturing during the Maoist revolution in Nepal. Cambridge University Press, May 2018
2017	“Economic Anthropology and Development Alternatives: Rethinking and Re-Politicizing Theory and Practice” in Dialectical Anthropology. Vol. 41. No. 2. June 2017.

Book Chapters and Journal Articles

On Social Embedding of Industrialisation

2024	“Beyond Masters: Women’s Shifting Roles in Nepal’s New Neoliberal Garment Industry” in South Asian History and Culture: Taylor and Francis Journal. Vol. 15. Issue 1. pp. 48-64.
2017	“An Anthropological Reading of the Policies of International Development: Export Competitiveness as a Conjunctural Case Study” in Dialectical Anthropology: Springer Journal, vol. 41, no. 2, pp. 113-128.
2011	“Bridging the Design Gap: The Case of Nepali Clothing Industry.” In Journal of Modern Craft: BERG, vol. 4, issue 3, pp. 294-395, BERG: London.
2011	“The World Bank and Private Sector Development: Is ‘Doing Business’ an Extension of the Structural Adjustment Programme or a Departure?” In St Antony’s International Review (STAIR): Special Edition on International Financial Institutions in an Age of Crisis, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 30-47, St Antony’s College: Oxford.
2011	“Apparel Exports in Lesotho: The State’s Role in Building Critical Mass for Competitiveness,” in P. Chuhan-Pole and M. Angwafo (eds.) Yes Africa Can: Success Stories from a Dynamic Continent. pp. 219-230, The World Bank: Washington DC.
2010	“Capitalism, Ethnicity, and the Rising Wave of Communism in Nepal.” In Himalaya: American Association of Nepal and Himalayan Studies. vol. 28, no. 1 & 2. (Reprinted: Lawoti, M. (ed.). Ethnicity, Inequality and Politics in Nepal. Social Science Baha: Kathmandu.)
2007	“Our Hymns are Different but Our Values are the Same:  Traditional Rituals in Modern Garment Factories in Nepal.” In European Bulletin of Himalayan Research: vol. 31, spring, pp. 67-82, CNRS: Paris.
2004	“Nepalisation of an Indian Industry:  The Fast Evolving (and Dismantling) Ready-Made Garment Industry of Nepal” in Contributions to Nepalese Studies, vol. 31, no. 3, pp. 265-291, Tribhuvan University: Kathmandu.
1999	“Economic Liberalisation and Nepal.”  The Organisation, Vol. 2, July-September, pp. 24-38. ODC Publications: Kathmandu.

On Labour

2023	“Variations of Labour Aristocracy and Union Trajectories across South Asia.” Chandana Mathur Ed. “Class within Class: His Interlocutors and Jonathan Parry.” Dialectical Anthropology. Vol. 47. Issue 2. June 2023. pp. 139-14.
2016	“Labour Militancy in Neoliberal Times: A Preliminary Comparison of Nepal with South Africa,” In J. Gledhill (ed.). World Anthropologies in Practice: Situated Perspectives, Global Knowledge. Bloomsbury: NY/Oxford.

Poetry and Anthropology

2024	“Narratives of Ageing, Narratives of Nation-Building: Manjul and the Poetics of Dissidence in Nepal” in Society and Culture in South Asia:Sage Publications. Vol. 10, Issue 1. pp. 73-96.
2023	“Auto-Ethnography, World History and Humanist Philosophy” in BEROSE Encyclopedie internationale des histoires de l’anthropologie.
2022	“Poetic Imagining(s) of South Asia: Writing Nations through Sensibilities of Resistance” Society and Culture in South Asia: Sage Publications. Vol. 8. Issue 2. June 2022. pp. 163-314.
2020	“Reading Parijat in Nepal: The Poetics of Radical Feminism Negotiating Self and Nation”, In F. Ibrahim and T. Kothiyal (eds.) South Asian Borderlands: History, Mobility, Affect. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge/NY.
2017	“Reading Parijaat and BP Koirala: Belonging and Border in the Twentieth Century Nepali Novels” in Economic and Political Weekly, vol. LII, no. 15, pp. 53-60.

Nation, Border, Nationalism

2022	Commentary on “Why I Write? In a Climate against Intellectual Dissidence” by Alpa Shah. Current Anthropology: The University of Chicago Press. Vol. 63. No. 5. October 2022. pp. 582-583.
2020	“The Politics of Border and Nation in Nepal in the Time of Pandemic” in Dialectical Anthropology: Springer Journal. Vol. 44. No. 3, pp. 223-321.
2016	“A Country of Rumours: Making Sense of a Bollywood Controversy on the Garment Shop Floors in Nepal,” In M. Hutt and P. Onta (eds.). The Creation of Public Meaning in Nepal: Case Studies from a Nation in Transition. Cambridge University Press: Delhi.
2014	“Marwari Traders Animating the Industrial Clusters of India-Nepal Border,” In K. Hart and J. Sharp (eds.) The Human Economy: Perspectives from the Global South. Berghann Books: Human Economy Series. (The second edition being printed)
2013	“Nepali Economic History through the Ethnic Lens:  Changing State Relationships with Entrepreneurial Elites.” M. Lawoti and S. Hangen (eds.) The Changing Face of Ethnic Movements in Nepal.  Routledge London: Politics and International Relations Series.

Others

2020	“Anthropology in the Margins.” Visual and New Media Review, Fieldsights, December 10. Cultural Anthropology. https://culanth.org/fieldsights/vanished-searching-for-a-missing-anthropologist
2000	“Economic Dimensions of the Conventions on the Rights of the Child” in A. Petren and J. Himes (eds) Children’s Rights: Turning Principles into Practice, Falth & Hassler: Sweden.

Contributions

Departmental Contributions

2023-2024	Chair of the committee designing the Undergraduate Programme on Sociology
June 2019 – March 2020	Acting Head of Department (HOD), Department of Sociology
2019	Founder of Nepal Lecture Series instituted
2014-2015, 2017-2021	Student Adviser, Department of Sociology
2014-2016	Coordinator of the Masters, MPhil, and PhD dissertations program

University Contributions

2018-2022	Member of the Redressal of Grievances of Students
2016-2021	Co-Chair of the Hostel Management Committee, University Mess Committee,Disciplinary Committee
2016-2021	Warden of the SAU Girls’ Hostel
2017-2018	Member of the University Complaints Committee (UCC) governing issues of sexual harassment
2014	Elected President, SAU Faculty Association (SAUFA)