Seema Shekhawat Joins India Center as a Fellow

The India Center welcomes Seema Shekhawat, Ph.D., as a Fellow. Shekhawat is a social scientist with a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Jammu in India. Her doctoral work focused on the intersection of gender, conflict and displacement in Kashmir. Her research and teaching interests include conflict, peace and gender, and her regional focus lies in India and South Asia. Shekhawat has presented papers and delivered public lectures in various parts of the world, including France, Germany, United Kingdom, Indonesia, Nepal, Philippines and the United States. Most recently she delivered a talk on women warriors at the Learning Institute for the Elderly (LIFE) at the University of Central Florida.

Shekhawat is a recipient of the Scholar of Peace Award (Women in Security, Conflict Management and Peace, New Delhi), the Berghof Foundation Fellowship (Berlin) and the International Peace Research Association Foundation Fellowship (USA). She has previously conducted research and taught at the Universities of Jammu and Mumbai, India. She has also been a consultant to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, Norwegian Refugee Council. Her experience also includes working as a consultant for the Conflict and Peace Studies Center, Kathmandu and EPOS, Rome. She was the guest editor for a special issue of the Journal of Internal Displacement, which focused on displaced women. She is a member of the editorial boards of the Journal of Internal Displacement, and Research Papers, the journal of the Human Rights Conflict Prevention Centre, University of Bihac, Bosnia. Moreover, she is a member of several organizations, including Dignity and Humiliation Studies, Action Asia and Women in War.

Shekhawat has published seven books in addition to numerous articles. Her publications include Gender, Conflict and Peace in Kashmir (Cambridge University Press 2014); Female Combatants in Conflict and Peace (Palgrave 2015); Gender, Conflict, Peace, and UNSC Resolution 1325 (Lexington 2018); Women and Borders (, I. B. Tauris 2018); Conflict and Displacement in Jammu and Kashmir (Saksham International 2006); and Contested Borders and Division of Families in Kashmir (with D. A. Mahapatra, WISCOMP 2009). Her current scholarship focuses on women warriors in India, and she is planning on publishing this research in a book.