Dolly Kikon

Dolly Kikon is a lecturer at the School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Melbourne, Victoria. Her research focuses on the political economy of extractive resources, development initiatives, gender relations, customary law, and human rights in Northeast India. Before coming to the University of Melbourne, Kikon led an interdisciplinary research project titled ‘The Indian Underbelly: Marginalization, Migration, and State Intervention in the Periphery’ at the Department of Anthropology, Stockholm University. Her work focused on the increasing trend of outmigration among upland societies in Northeast India and examined the expansion and outcomes of developmental activities by the Indian state in areas associated with economic ‘backwardness’, subsistence agriculture, and armed conflict. Prior to obtaining her doctoral degree in Anthropology from Stanford University, Kikon worked as a human rights lawyer and a community organiser in India. Focusing on land rights among tribal communities in Northeast India, her legal advocacy works extensively dealt with constitutional provisions with regard to land and resource ownership, as well as autonomy arrangements for securing ethnic rights and guarantees.