Deepika Saraswat, Senior Adjunct Researcher

Deepika has recently submitted her doctoral thesis Exploring Geopolitical Imaginations: A Critical Analysis of Iran, 1979-2013 at School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi(July, 2017). Her thesis has explored how a revolutionary, Islamic identity of Iran is constructed in Iranian geopolitical discourse and to what purpose and effect has the imagination of the United States as the ‘enemy other’ been discursively sustained by Iranian state elites.

Deepika has carried out month long field work in three Iranian cities – Tehran, Mashhad and Isfahan, in early 2015 and has acquired basic knowledge of Persian language at Iran Culture House, New Delhi. During her stay in Iran, she was associated with TarbiatModares University, Tehran as a guest PhD researcher. At JNU, she has been a holder of Junior Research Fellowship awarded by University Grant Commission, Government of India.

Deepika’s area of interest lies in exploring national identity discourses, interpenetration of religion and politics in postcolonial contexts and geopolitical trends unfolding in West Asia and India’s neighborhood. She has presented her works in some important conferences in India and abroad, including Return of Geopolitics Conference at University of Arizona in April, 2016 and International Geographical Union Regional Conference, 2015 at Lomonosov Moscow State University, where her paper won the IGU-Commission on Political Geography Student Travel Grant Award. Her work has been published in national level journals, including South Asian Survey.