Dipin Kaur

I am an Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Relations at Ashoka University (Haryana, India). My research focuses on ethnicity and state strategy in the shadow of political violence, with a regional focus on South Asia and the British Empire.

My book project, Coethnic Counterinsurgents, explains why states collaborate with coethnics (i.e., individuals belonging to the same ethnic groups as insurgents) in response to some conflicts, but rely on ethnic outgroups in others. I answer this question using a variety of empirical methods, including qualitative interviews from multi-site fieldwork, archival research, counterfactual analysis, and quantitative analysis of medium-n observational and survey data. In other work – published in the American Journal of Political Science and Social Text – I study gender dynamics, public opinion-building in conflict, and the politics of post-conflict transitional justice.

I will receive my PhD in Political Science from Yale University in December 2022. Originally from New Delhi (India), I received my B.A. in Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley, prior to joining graduate school.

At Ashoka, I teach thematic courses on political violence and post-conflict dynamics, as well as courses on Research Methodology with a focus on Qualitative Methods.