Sarmila is an academic, journalist and lawyer specializing in South Asia. Her interests span history, politics, public policy and law. Her current research interest is political trials in or related to India/South Asia. Sarmila received her AB in History from Bryn Mawr College, MPA and PhD in Political Economy and Government from Harvard University, Graduate Diploma in Law from the City Law School and LLM from Columbia University Law School. She is admitted to the New York bar and as a solicitor in England & Wales. Sarmila has held academic positions in the US, UK and India. At Oxford she was Senior Research Fellow at the Department of Politics and International Relations, inaugural Director of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the Department and Research Associate at the Centre for International Studies. She taught and supervised undergraduate and graduate students at the Department of Politics and International Relations and graduate students from the Faculty of Oriental Studies. Sarmila was a political journalist in India for several years covering elections, economic reform and civil conflicts.
Harvard University
Doctoral
2020-1989
Economics, Political Science, Social Policy
Harvard University
Of Counsel
Macchi di Cellere Gangemi
2018-2018
Adviser
Citizens Advice Kensington and Chelsea
2018-Present
Senior Research Associate
University of Oxford
2011-2018
Senior Research Fellow in the Politics of South Asia
University of Oxford
2008-2011
Director, Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism
University of Oxford
2006-2008
The question of genocide and the quest for justice in the 1971 war
Kayasthas of Bengal: Legends, Genealogies, Genetics
Anatomy of Violence: Analysis of Civil War in East Pakistan in 1971
Fragments of Memories: Researching Violence in the 1971 Bangladesh War
Money, Energy and Welfare: State and the Household in India’s Rural Electrification Policy