Professor Dibyesh Anand

As a new updated profile shows, I have now taken the responsibility as Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Global Engagement and Employability). 

I was, until September 2023, Head of School of Social Sciences. I am often considered as a curious scholar, a lifelong student, a passionate lecturer, or a public intellectual. In terms of primary responsibilities, I am the co-chair of University's Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Committee as well as the Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) Network Committee. I am also the Chair of London Higher's EDI Network. I have been appointed to Research England's EDI Expert Advisory Group (2023-2026).

I joined University of Westminster in 2007 as a Reader (Associate Professor for those used to the non-British system) in International Relations. I have been a Professor since 2016. I moved from University of Bath where I was a lecturer. I did my PhD (1998-2002) from the Department of Politics at University of Bristol and the topic was related to Western representations of Tibet and its political and cultural significance. I have never been comfortable within a discipline. While my MA was in International Law and Politics at the University of Hull (1997-1998), the Bachelors was in History from St Stephen's College, University of Delhi. I could not have pursued my Masters and PhD without scholarships. While the MA was sponsored by British Chevening scholarship, the PhD was made possible due to University of Bristol and Overseas Research Scholarships.

I have shifted places and disciplines, I have experienced elite and non elite as well as religious and secular education, my ideas emerge as much on Facebook as it does in structured scholarly forums, I indulge in concepts as much as in every day politics. What has remained consistent so far is my desire to produce scholarship that is meaningful to groups and peoples who are often marginalised, minoritised, occupied and suppressed. This desire comes across in my research, academic writings and public engagement on topics including colonial practices of postcolonial states including China in Tibet and Xinjiang and India in Kashmir, politics and international relations of stateless Tibetans, Islamophobia in India, majoritarian nationalisms including Hindutva, politics of security and representation, ethnic relations in Zanzibar, emergence of China and India as major non-Western powers as well as contested nature of nation-state formations in China and South Asia.

I have authored monographs Geopolitical Exotica: Tibet in Western Imagination, Tibet: A Victim of Geopolitics, and Hindu Nationalism in India and the Politics of Fear and published a number of chapters in edited collections and articles in journals. The easiest way to locate my publications is through academia page 

I have a significant presence in popular media and a google search for my name links to a range of forums including comment articles in The Guardian, YouTube videos, cited expert views in newspapers of the USA, UK, China, India and Singapore, and blogs.

I have held visiting positions at University of California Berkeley, Australian National University, Centre for Bhutan Studies, Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, Jawaharlal Nehru University and the Central University of Hyderabad and delivered plenary talks, lectures and seminar papers at institutions in USA, Europe, India, Bhutan, China, Russia, Singapore, and Australia. Currently, I am a Visiting Professor in Politics and International Relation at New College of the Humanities. 

I feel strongly about ethical and engaged scholarship and adopting an activist ethos as a leader in the University sector. After heading the Department of Politics and International Relations from 2013-2018, I became the Head of the Social Sciences. In recent years, significant part of my energy goes into matters of equity, diversity and inclusion, including leading the change and reflecting on it.

By the time I joined Westminster in 2007, I published Geopolitical Exotica: Tibet in Western Imagination with University of Minnesota Press. This was based on my doctoral and postdoctoral research. It was republished in 2009 in South Asia where the bulk of Tibetan exiles live as Tibet: A Victim of Geopolitics. A revised version was translated by the Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in Beijing, but there was no progress on its actual publication. This body of my research provided postcolonial critique of colonial practices that shaped Tibet as an international problem and engaged with the politics of identity and representation in the Tibetan diaspora. I have argued that both Western ideas and practices are complicit in Chinese control of Tibet. In recent years, my research shifted the focus to a critical analysis of China's public diplomacy and the conversion of Tibet into 'China's Tibet'. I speak extensively as a public intellectual in solidarity with Tibetan movement. I have recently written on the contested geopolitics of reincarnation and the Dalai Lama. 

I have researched on the cooperative and competitive relations between China and India with special reference to the border dispute and differing attitudes toward Tibet. It also engages with the significance of China-India relations for other peoples and countries in the Himalayan region. I am currently working on a monograph on the border dispute and its significance for the Himalayan region.

I have done extensive research on rightwing majoritarian nationalism in India and published several articles and a book Hindu Nationalism in India and the Politics of Fear. I conceptualise the phenomenon as 'pornonationalism', as violent, and as the biggest threat to the secular idea of India as a democracy. I am rather pro-active in my public engagement activities, through organising events, hosting delegations and social media. Among the most prominent events were one involving Arundhati Roy  and Wang Lixiong in 2011 and then the Dalai Lama's visit to the University of Westminster in 2012. I also organised a public event on Kashmir and Tibet, involving two prominent dissident intellectuals: Wang Lixiong from China and Arundhati Roy from India. Most of these events are recorded and available via youtube. My social media activities have been extensive and my facebook is more political than social.

In recent years, I have primarily focused on colonial practices embedded within the postcolonial states, on China, and on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion. 

Professional Recognition

Editorial Board, Himalaya

Editorial Board, South Asian Diaspora

Editorial Board, Critical Military Studies

Board Member, Tibet Relief Fund, 2017-2019

Board Member, Tibet society, 2015-2017

PUBLICATIONS

Authored Books

Kaul, N and Anand, D (eds) (Forthcoming/2024) Contemporary Kashmiris and Kurds: Conflict and Coloniality, London: University of Westminster Press.

Anand, D (2011) Hindu Nationalism in India and the Politics of Fear, New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Anand, D. (2007) Geopolitical Exotica: Tibet in Western Imaginatio, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press (Borderline Series).

(Reprinted as Anand, D. (2009) Tibet: A Victim of Geopolitics, New Delhi: Routledge.

Articles (Peer-reviewed journal articles are with *)

Bunbury, S., Husbands, D., and Anand, D. (2023) ‘How to be an anti-racist ally on the university campus’, Times Higher Education, 18 May. https://www.timeshighereducation.com/campus/how-be-antiracist-ally-university-campus

Kaul, N. and Anand, D. (2023) ‘India: Rahul Gandhi’s defamation trial highlights drift away from democracy under Narendra Modi’, The Conversation, 14 April. https://theconversation.com/india-rahul-gandhis-defamation-trial-highlights-drift-away-from-democracy-under-narendra-modi-203852

Kaul, N. and Anand, D. (2022) ‘Understanding and undoing the far right: India and beyond’, Immanent Frame, 7 December, https://tif.ssrc.org/2022/12/07/understanding-and-undoing-the-far-right/

*Anand, D, Delatolla, A. and Rahman, M. et al. (2021), ‘Challenging Institutional Racism in International Relations and Our Profession: Reflections, Experiences, and Strategies’, Millennium: Journal of International Studies 50 (1), 110-148 doi: 10.1177/03058298211059357

Husbands, D. and Anand, D. (2020) ‘Agitation and allyship – our experience of working towards an anti-racist university’, Wonkhe https://wonkhe.com/blogs/agitation-and-allyship-our-experience-of-working-towards-an-anti-racist-university/ {Magazine article}

*Anand, D (2018) ‘Colonization with Chinese characteristics: politics

of (in)security in Xinjiang and Tibet’, Central Asian Survey 38 (1), 129-147. https://doi.org/10.1080/02634937.2018.1534801

*Anand, D. (2012) ‘Remembering 1962 Sino-Indian Border War: Politics of Memory’, Journal of Defence Studies 6 (4), 229-248.

*Anand, D. (2012) ‘China and India: Postcolonial Informal Empires in the Emerging Global Order’, Rethinking Marxism 24 (1), 68-86.

*Anand D. and Kaul, N. (2011) ‘A Disruptive Ethnography of Tanzanian-Indians’, South Asian Diaspora 3 (2), 183-195.

*Anand, D. (2011) ‘Revisiting the China-India Border Dispute: An Introduction’, China Report 47 (1), 65-69.

*Anand, D. (2009) ‘Diasporic Subjectivity as an Ethical Position’, South Asian Diaspora 1(2), 102-112.

*Anand, D. (2009) ‘Strategic Hypocrisy: The British Imperial Scripting of Tibet’s Geopolitical Identity’, Journal of Asian Studies 68 (1), 227-52.

*Anand, D. (2007) ‘Anxious Sexualities: Masculinity, Nationalism and Violence’, British Journal of Politics and International Relations 9 (2), 257-269.

*Anand, D. (2007) ‘Western Representations of the Other: The Case of Exotica Tibet’, New political science 29 (1), 23-42.

*Anand, D. (2005) ‘Violence of Security: Hindutva in India’, The Roundtable: The Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs 94 (379), 201-213.

*Anand, D. (2003) ‘A Contemporary Story of Diaspora: The Tibetan Version’, Diaspora: A Journal of Transnational Studies 12 (3), 211-229.

*Anand, D. (2003) ‘Reading the Tibetan Diaspora: ‘Culture’ and ‘Nation’ as Strategic Constructs’, Anglo-Saxonica, Series II (19), 77-92.

*Anand, D. (2000) ‘(Re)Imagining Nationalism: Identity and Representation in Tibetan Diaspora in South Asia’, Contemporary South Asia 9 (3), 271-287.

Chapters in Edited Collections

Anand, D. (2023) ‘Contested (Geo)Politics of Reincarnation and the future China-Tibet Relations’, in J. Panda and E, Pankaj (eds) The Dalai Lama’s Succession: Strategic Realities of the Tibet Question, Stockhold: Institute for Security and Development Policy.

Anand, D. (2018) ‘Appropriating Ayodhya on “Valour Day”: Hindu Nationalism and Pilgrimage as Politics’, A M Pinkney and J W Bridge (eds) Religious Journeys in India, Albany: State University of New York

Anand, D. (2014) ‘Nationalism’, in L. J. Shepherd (ed.) Gender Matters in Global Politics, Revised Edition, London: Routledge

Anand, D. (2012) ‘The Violence of Security: Hindutva’s Lethal Imaginaries’, in R. Robinson (ed.) Minorities in India, New Delhi: Sage.

Anand, D. (2010) ‘Beyond Tibet’, in K. Knott and S McLoughlin (eds) Diasporas: Concepts, Identities, Intersections, London: Zed

Anand, D. (2010) ‘Challenging ‘Tibetan exceptionalism’: Exotica Tibet as an Orientalist construct’, in S. Arslan and P. Schwieger (eds) Tibetan Studies. An Anthology. Proceedings of the 11th Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, Königswinter 2006. Halle: International Institute for Tibetan and Buddhist Studies.

Anand, D. (2010) ‘Generating Islamophobia in India’, in S. Sayyid and A Vakil (eds) Thinking through Islamophobia, London: C Hurst

Anand, D. (2009) ‘On Sino-India Political Relations: Boundary Questions and Beyond’, in The Executive Summary of International Conference on China-India Relations: Between Cooperation and Conflict, Shanghai: Fudan University.  

Anand, D. (2008) ‘Dangers of Management Speak: Politics of Crisis Management and Erasures of Histories’, in S. Eskola (ed.) Crisis Management in Crisis?, Helsinki: National Defense University.

Anand, D. (2008) ‘Porno-Nationalism and the Male Subject: An ethnography of Hindu Nationalist Imagination in India’, in J. Parpart and M. Zalewski (eds) Rethinking the ‘Man’ Question in International Politics, London: Zed.

Anand, D. (2006) ‘Archive and the Poetics of ‘Exotica Tibet’, in P. C. Klieger (ed) Tibetan Borderlands, Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers.

Anand, D. (2006) ‘The West and the Tibetan issue’, in B. Sautman and J. T. Dreyer (eds), Contemporary Tibet: Politics, Development and Society in a Disputed Region, Armonk: ME Sharpe.

Consultant Editor (2005) Atlas of the World, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Anand, D. (2004) ‘Introduction’ to Philip’s Guide to the State of the World, London: Philip’s Maps.

Anand, D. (2002) ‘A Story to be Told: IR, Postcolonialism, and the Tibetan (Trans)nationalism’, in G. Chowdhry and S. Nair (eds), Power, Postcolonialism, and International Relations: Reading Race, Gender and Class, London: Routledge.

Anand, D. (2002) ‘A Guide to Little Lhasa in India: The Role of Symbolic Geography of Dharamsala in Constituting Tibetan Diasporic Identity’, in P. C. Klieger (ed.), Tibet, Self, and the Tibetan Diaspora: Voices of Difference, Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers.

Anand, D. (2001) Entries on Idealism, Nazism, Imperialism, Gay politics, Ethnicity, and Postcolonialism, in J. Mitchie (ed.), Readers Guide to the Social Sciences, London: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers. 

AWARDS

Research Fellowship

Freilich Visiting Fellowship (with grant) from Research School of Humanities and Freilich Foundation, Australian National University, for ‘Rethinking Cosmopolitanism in the face of Muslimphobia Commonsense Bigotry’, June-Aug 2009.

Economic and Social Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2002-2003.

Research Grants

University of Westminster Strategic Research Grant for the Project on ‘Impacting International Policy Making, Activism and Public Debates on Tibet and Kashmir’, 2018.

University of Warwick Impact Acceleration Award for Project on ‘The Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons and Effective Human Rights: Co-Developing A Research Agenda’, Co-Investigator with Dr Goldie Osuri, 2015-7.

British Academy grant ‘“China’s Tibet”: (Inter)National Politics of Imagination’, 2010-11.

British Association for South Asian Studies grant, ‘From Contact Zone to Conflict Zone: Geopolitics and Boundary Making in Sino-Indian relations’, 2008-09.

Principal Investigator in BA-AHRC-ESRC Visiting Fellowships for South Asia and the Middle East to work on a collaborative project (with A. Ghosh) titled ‘The Politics of Performance: the Uses of Spectacles for Political Mobilisation in Contemporary India’, 2008.

British Academy (BASIS) grant (with N. Kaul) for research on ‘Going beyond Roots and Routes: Multi-Racial Economy and Cultural Identities in Tanzania’, 2008.

The British Academy Small Research Grant for research on ‘Locating sovereignty in a strange place: the Europeanisation of Sino-Tibetan relations’, 2006.

Universities China Committee in London (UCCL) Research Grant to conduct fieldwork in Beijing and Lhasa on a project titled ‘Representing China’s Tibet: Overlapping Geographies of Lhasa’ and to collaborate with Central University of Nationalities and Sichuan University in China, 2006.

Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation Library Grant to conduct archival research at Oxford, European Association for Chinese Studies, 2006.

ESRC Research Training Bursary, 2005-06.

Centre for Public Economics pump-priming grant, 2005-06.

The British International Studies Association Research Award, 2001.

The Society for South Asian Studies, The British Academy, 2000.

Scholarships

University of Bristol Postgraduate Scholarship and the Overseas Research Scholarship for Ph.D., UK, 1998-2001.

British Chevening Scholarship for MA, UK, 1997-98.

National Talent Scholarship, National Council of Educational Research and Training, Government of India, 1992-97.

Travel Grants

Universities China Committee in London (UCCL) travel grant to invite Professor Liu Xuecheng for a conference on ‘Revisiting the China-India Border Dispute’, June 2010.

Political Studies Association Conference Grant, 2009.

Universities China Committee in London (UCCL) 2008 Grant to attend Beijing Tibet Studies Seminar and conduct fieldwork in Tibet.

British Academy Overseas Conference Grant, 2007.

International Studies Association, 2007.

University of Bath Staff Development Unit Financial Assistance for Continuing Professional Development, 2005-06.

British Academy Overseas Conference Grant, March 2005.

International Studies Association, February 2001.

Politics and Arts (POLARTS) Standing Groups, ECPR, November 2000.

Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict Research Group, Ontario, October 2000.

Alumni Foundation, University of Bristol, August 2000.

PSA Hardship fund, April 2000.

Knowlson Trust, August 1999.

Cambridge Commonwealth Trust/ Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, June 1998.

Prizes and Fellowships

TGP Spear Memorial History Scholarship; Andrews Memorial Prize; Westcott Memorial History Prize; Prem Nath Bhalla Memorial Merit Prize; Shankar Lal History Medal. St Stephen’s College (University of Delhi), 1997.

Swami Vivekananda Chicago Lectures Centenary Prize, St Stephen’s College (University of Delhi), 1996.

Vikalpa Fellowship, Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India for social work in rural areas of Orissa, 1995.

Teaching Award

Won the “Staff Appreciation Awards” for Student Support, 2017 and 2018

Nominated for “Staff Appreciation Awards” in various categories, 2013, 2014

Nominated for University of Bath’s Mary Tasker Award for excellence in teaching (2006). The Awards Committee made a special commendation for ‘dedication to teaching and pastoral support, interactive approach to teaching and commitment to an ongoing process of exploration and development’.

PhD Thesis Supervision (University of Westminster, unless mentioned otherwise)

Past

I Basu ‘Citizenship, Politics of Recognition, and Tribal Movements in India’ (Director of Studies, University of Bath)

C Willott ‘Neopatrimonialism and Nigeria’ (Co-Supervisor, University of Bath)

M Telatin ‘Challenging the Marketisation of Development-Security Nexus’ (Director of Studies)

D Genovese ‘'The Tragedy of Islamism in Britain: A Fetishism for Politics’ (Director of Studies)

J Schmidt ‘Rethinking Democracy Promotion’ (Co-Supervisor)

T Bannerjee ‘Nationalism and Internationalism in Early Indian English Literature’ (Co-Supervisor)

G Khan ‘Federalism, Nationalism and Separatism in Balochistan’ (Director of Studies)

J Faiz ‘Politics of Education, Conflict and Conflict Resolution in Balochistan, Pakistan’ (Director of Studies)

D Azami ‘Political Economy of Drugs and Conflict: The Challenges of Insurgency and State-Building in Afghanistan’ (Director of Studies)

S Lee ‘Construction of China and India's National Interests: The Tibet Question’ (Director of Studies)

F Akgul ‘Patriarchal theory reconsidered: torture and gender-based violence in Turkey’ (Co-Supervisor)

N Piatti ‘Tibetan Immigrants in North America’ (Director of Studies, Oxford Centre for Missionary Studies)

D Lee ‘Peripheral Alternative: Media and Tibetan nationalism in the Chinese Tibetosphere’ (Co-Supervisor)

D G Aasen ‘Constructing Narcoterrorism as Danger: Afghanistan and the Politics of Security and Representation’ (Director of Studies)

M Bastos ‘Foreign Policy of Pakistan: A Critical Approach’ (Director of Studies)

E Fontes ‘Politics of Education and National Identity in the Age of Bolsonarismo in Brazil’ (Director of Studies)

J Ali ‘Competing Nationalisms: Ethiopia and Ogaden People’ (Co-Supervisor)

A Menon ‘Coloniality of a Postcolonial Nation-State: India in Indian Administered Jammu & Kashmir’ (Director of Studies)

P Tandan ‘A postcolonial approach to Nepal's geopolitics, hydro-politics, and border-politics’ (Director of Studies)

Ongoing

U Jan ‘Contested Politics of Militarisation, Democracy and Development: A study of civil bureaucracy in India-controlled Kashmir’ (Director of Studies), Final Year

B Bakumbayev ‘Kazakhstan’s Foreign Policy since Independence: A Small State From Order Taker to Order Maker (1991-2021)’ (Co-Supervisor), Final Year

Lonceny Kourouma ‘Examining the Black doctoral students’ lived experiences in the UK within a decolonising lens’ (Co-Supervisor), Third Year.

M Go ‘Evaluating representations/interpretations of China’s rise in International Relations Theory (IRT) with United States foreign policy towards China (1949-current)’ (Co-Supervisor), Second Year

Mentoring of Postdoctoral Fellows

T Mesbahuddin, ESRC Postdoctoral Fellow (University of Westminster 2007-09)

A Ghosh, BA-AHRC-ESRC Visiting Fellow, 2008

For details of all my research outputs, visit my WestminsterResearch profile.