Two University of Oxford academics of Indian heritage are among 30 winners of the 2023 Leverhulme Trust Prizes, which honour exceptional research across different fields.
Bahrain-born Professor Amia Srinivasan, from the Faculty of Philosophy at Oxford University, has been recognised for her work on epistemology, social and political philosophy, feminism, metaphilosophy, and history of philosophy, and Ridhi Kashyap, from the Department of Sociology, has been honoured for her work on demography, social statistics, computational social science, digital and computational demography, and gender inequalities.
Each Leverhulme Trust prize, attracting nominations from exceptionally high calibre researchers, is worth £100,000 – making up a prize total of £3 million – that may be used by the winners for any purpose that advances the prize winner’s research.
Professor Kashyap said: “I am grateful to the Head of Department for supporting my nomination for the Leverhulme Prize. Oxford is an exciting place to conduct research at the intersection of demography and computational social science.
“I look forward to continuing my research in both substantive and methodological directions and contributing to the advancement of digital and computational demography.”
Kashyap plans to use the Leverhulme Prize to continue to develop her work in digital and computational demography. She and her team are currently expanding methods to use social media data for mapping subnational population and development processes. They are also examining the social and demographic impacts of digitalisation at different stages of digital diffusion, and in a comparative global perspective.
Professor Srinivasan is, meanwhile, working on her second book, on the practice of critical genealogy, entitled ‘The Contingent World: Genealogy, Epistemology, Politics’.
Professor Anna Vignoles, Director of the Leverhulme Trust, said: “In its twenty-second year, this scheme continues to attract applications from exceptionally high calibre researchers. The Leverhulme Trust is thrilled to award prizes to academics undertaking work on an impressive range of topics, from plant evolution to the history of capitalism, family law to theoretical statistics, and the philosophy of science to human trafficking.
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“We are very proud to support these researchers through the next stage of their careers. Selecting the winners gets tougher each year, and we are incredibly grateful to the reviewers and panel members who help us in our decision-making.”
Chosen from over 400 nominations, the Trust offered five prizes in each of the following subject areas: Biological Sciences, History, Law, Mathematics and Statistics, Philosophy and Theology, and Sociology and Social Policy.
Among the winners is also Dr Bérénice Guyot-Réchard, historian of modern South Asia and the Indian Ocean at King’s College London, who has been awarded for her work on the history of South Asia, international and transnational history, and the history of decolonisation.
Dr Bérénice Guyot-Réchard said: “The prize will give me two years to write the story of how central India has been to the making of the international order as we know it — and that its sense of itself, as an exceptional nation with a leading role to play in the world, has deep roots.
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“The Glass Giant isn't just going to be a book about diplomatic dealings, war rooms, or the decisions of viceroys, prime ministers, ambassadors, and generals: for me, the story of India's global influence is as much about rookie diplomats, bored border guards, harassed indentured migrants, fleet-footed revolutionaries, anti-racist activists, and scientists on exchange visits. (So be prepared for a door-stopper of a book.).”
*Info: Leverhulme Trust Prizes