Research Interests: Humanistic Criminology, Effects of Long-term Imprisonment, Capital Punishment and Mitigation, Prison Ethnography

Studying the experiences of violent offenders during my undergraduate degree exposed me to the unequal power dynamics between staff and prisoners and the moral value systems governing prison life in India. Several prisoners revealed how the stigma accompanying long term incarceration impaired their social and personal relationships and hindered their prospects in the free world. Pursuing the MPhil in Criminological Research at Cambridge will enable me to collaborate with scholars conducting groundbreaking qualitative research at the Prisons Research Centre. At the Institute of Criminology, I am eager to take courses by Prof. Alison Liebling and Prof. Ben Crewe. Their scholarship on appreciative inquiry and the sociocultural, temporal and emotive dimensions of prison life has motivated me to think deeply about the myriad ways in which inmates internalise the pains of imprisonment. My time at NUALS mentoring students from juvenile
justice homes taught me the benefits of addressing deviant behaviour using dynamic educational and trauma-informed interventions rather than punitive sanctions. Therefore, I am most excited to support partnerships between incarcerated populations and educational institutions by working with the Cambridge Learning Together programme. The insights I gain at Cambridge will prepare me for a career dedicated to creating safe, humane and effective prison policies that equip prisoners with the resources they need to reintegrate into the real world.