Ph.D., Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru UniversityExpected 2028
Thesis: “Power, Performance, and the Political: A Study of Witch-Hunting in West Bengal.”
I study how power, ritual and the law converge on the bodies of marginalised women, currently through an ethnography of witch-hunting in West Bengal.
I am a doctoral researcher at the Centre for Political Studies, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, working at the meeting point of political and legal anthropology, feminist theory, and performance. Alongside academia, I have spent over a decade as a theatre director and performer, and I treat the stage as a second method, a way to carry questions of gender, power, and social justice into public life.
Short bio for event organisers
50 words. Roshan Amar Ujala is a doctoral candidate in Political Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University, studying witch-hunting, gendered violence and performance in West Bengal. A theatre director, he received the 2025 National Youth Icon Award (Government of India) for excellence in theatre and performance.
100 words. Roshan Amar Ujala is a doctoral candidate at the Centre for Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, working where political and legal anthropology, feminist theory and performance meet. His thesis theorises witch-hunting in West Bengal as necro-performance: the publicly staged production of social death enacted on Adivasi and Dalit women. He writes public scholarship for leading digital platforms and publications. Alongside academia, he has spent over a decade directing for the stage and the street, and in 2025 received the National Youth Icon Award for theatre and performance.
01 News & Highlights
- Jul 2026Selected for the Jean Monnet Intensive Summer School on EU Institutions, University of Rome Unitelma Sapienza, Italy. (For details, see section 07)
- Jul 2026Selected as a delegate to the Days of International Theatre Cooperation ("New Generation"), Moscow, Russia, organised by the Union of Theatre Workers of the Russian Federation (STD RF) and Rossotrudnichestvo. (For details, see section 07)
- May 2026New essay in Feminism in India drawing the logic of witch-hunting onto labour systems that punish menstruating women. Read ↗
- Apr 2026Two essays in Feminism in India, on the denied grief of victims' families and on bodily protest and the politics of being seen.
- Jan 2025Awarded the National Youth Icon Award for Excellence in Theatre & Performance (Government of India).
02 Research
“Power, Performance, and the Political: A Study of Witch-Hunting in West Bengal”
My doctoral thesis theorises witch-hunting in Purulia, West Bengal as necro-performance: the publicly staged, ritually structured production of social death enacted on Adivasi (Santal) and Dalit women. It situates the dain (witch) accusation at the intersection of colonial legacies, a fragmented anti-witch-hunting legal architecture, and a political economy of dispossession, welfare withdrawal, contested land, and an ojha-mediated healthcare vacuum. The project is among the first political-science treatments of witch-hunting in South Asia as a question of sovereignty and performance.
Methods: multi-sited and sensory ethnography, socio-legal analysis, colonial-archival research, Right to Information (RTI) data, digital ethnography, and the study of oral traditions, histories, memories and narratives.
03 Education
M.A., Political Science, Jawaharlal Nehru University2022
B.A. (Honours), Political Science, Banaras Hindu University2020
04 Research Experience
Doctoral Researcher, Centre for Political Studies, School of Social Sciences, JNU2022 – present
- Ethnographic and archival research. Project described under Research.
05 Selected Publications & Presentations
Working Paper
- “Federalism’s Uneven Shield: Witch-Hunting, Territorial Autonomy, and the Multi-Level Governance of Gendered Harm in India” (under submission, 2026). Reframes India’s divergent, state-by-state anti-witch-hunting laws as a problem of multi-level governance and the protection of “minorities within minorities.”
Public Scholarship & Essays
More public writing: Youth Ki Awaaz ↗
Selected Conference Presentations
- “Socio-Cultural Exploration of Gender and Performance in Regional Indian Theatre: Transgender Representations in Shumang Leela and Bhavai,” International Conference on India & Southeast Asia, JNU (2023).
- “Exploring Ethical Dilemmas on Stage: Ethics and Theatre in Contemporary Performance,” National Conference on Ethics in Human Sciences Research, JNU (2023).
- “Deconstructing Gender Binaries in Experimental Theatre: Non-Binary Representation of Language and Identity,” International Conference on Gender Narratives, RGNIYD & JNU (2023).
- “Political Ideology and Attribution: COVID-19 Perceptions among University Students in India,” 31st Convention, National Academy of Psychology, IIT Bombay (2022).
- “Heraka Movement: Contributions of the Forgotten Daughter of the Hills, Rani Gaidinliu,” ICSSR-Sponsored National Seminar on Recreational Sports Activities and Adolescent Development, GGD College, Varanasi (2022).
06 Teaching
Guest Faculty, Political Science, Jesus & Mary College (NCWEB), University of Delhi2024 – 2025
- Comparative Government & Politics; International Political Economy; Political Leadership & Communication.
Academic Counsellor & Resource Person, School of Open Learning (Univ. of Delhi) & IGNOU2025 – present
Teaching Fellow, Teach For India, Pune2020
07 Fellowships, Scholarships & Awards
- Selected Participant, Jean Monnet Intensive Summer School on Participation, Lobbying and Transparency in the EU Institutions [PLAT-EU], co-funded by the European Union (Erasmus+ Programme). Organised by the School of Cultures, Politics and Democracy, University of Rome Unitelma Sapienza, Rome, Italy, Jul 2026.
- Selected Delegate, Days of International Theatre Cooperation ("New Generation"), a flagship bilateral programme organised by the Union of Theatre Workers of the Russian Federation (STD RF) & Rossotrudnichestvo (Federal Agency for CIS Affairs, Compatriots Living Abroad, and International Humanitarian Cooperation), Moscow, Russia, Jul 2026.
- National Youth Icon Award (Excellence in Theatre & Performance), Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports, Govt. of India, Jan 2025.
- UGC-NET Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) and Assistant Professor eligibility, Political Science, 2022.
- Merit-Cum-Means Scholarship, Centre for Political Studies, School of Social Sciences, JNU, 2020–2022.
08 Theatre & Performance Practice
Convenor of the JNU Drama Club (2023–present) and former Secretary of the Rangshala Dramatics Society, BHU (2018–2020). My direction, Mahasweta Devi’s Bayen (a woman branded a witch), Manto’s Khol Do, Karnad’s Tughlaq, Tendulkar’s Sakharam Binder and Piyush Mishra’s Gagan Damama Bajyo, together with street theatre (nukkad natak) for Indian ministries, the NHRC and WWF India, treats performance as public pedagogy on gender, indigenous rights and the environment. On screen: Summer of ’77 (SonyLIV, dir. Sudhir Mishra, forthcoming) and Barah X Barah (2024).
09 Languages, Skills & Service
LanguagesEnglish (fluent) · Hindi (native) · Bengali (fluent; primary fieldwork language) · Maithili · Bhojpuri · Mandarin Chinese (elementary).
Research & technicalIn-depth interviews and focus groups; qualitative coding; comparative and policy analysis.
Academic serviceExamination scripts evaluator, Political Science, University of Delhi (2025–26); jury member, inter-collegiate theatre and street-play festivals (2023–26); member, Prime Ministers’ Museum and Library (PMML) Society, New Delhi (2026–2027).
10 Academic Media
A curated collection of photographs, talks, lectures, interviews, podcasts, and other academic media will be available here soon.
Coming Soon
This section is currently being curated. Please visit again for future updates.
11 Contact & References
I welcome enquiries regarding research collaborations, publications, invited talks, and other academic engagements. Please get in touch to discuss potential opportunities.
ReferencesAvailable on request.