Nira Wickramasinghe
Nira Wickramasinghe
Nira Wickramasinghe is Chair/Professor of Modern South Asian Studies at the Leiden University Institute for Area Studies (LIAS) at Leiden University. She has published on a range of issues in particular questions of belonging, everyday life under colonialism, the relationship between state and society in modern South Asia and the rise of populism. She heads a large NWO project (2023-2027) that addresses the genre of minor histories through studies of enslaved people and forced migrants in the Indian Ocean world. In addition to her research and teaching she intervenes regularly in public debates and contributes essays and op.eds to Opendemocracy, the Wall Street Journal, and Current History.
Research interests
- Indian ocean slavery and legacies
- Piracy
- Migration histories
- Port cities
- Restitution issues
