Dr Rohini Rai
Lecturer in Sociology of Race

Summary

Dr Rohini Rai is a sociologist of race, ethnicity, indigeneity and migration, and the Lecturer in Sociology of Race at Brunel University of London.

She earned her PhD at the University of Manchester, where her thesis titled, 'Northeastern Delhi: 'Race', Space and Identity in a Postcolonial, Globalising City' examined the racialisation of and everyday racism experienced by internal migrants from India’s Northeastern and Himalayan borderlands in Delhi. After her PhD, Rohini worked at the Centre on the Dynamics of Ethnicity (CoDE), University of Manchester, on an ESRC-funded project examining ethnic inequalities in UK higher education, focusing on decolonising British History and Geography.  

Since joining Brunel in 2022, Rohini has led the British Academy SHAPE Involve and Engage Grant (2023-2024), on a project titled ‘Indigenising the Himalaya: Reimagining its past, present and futures’, in partnership with the Royal Geographical Society, which examined ‘diasporic indigeneity’ through archives, dance and stories. Rohini was also awarded with Brunel Public Engagement Funds (PEF, 2024) to curate a public engagement event– The London Himalayan Short Film Festival (2024) in collaboration with Brunel South Asia Studies Research Group, the Critical Himalayan Collective and Brunel Nepali Student Society. She currently leads a British Academy-Leverhulme Small Research Grants (2026-2028) project titled ‘Dancing Indigeneity in the Eastern Himalaya: Politics of Recognition and State Appropriation through Sakela Sili’, which examines the politics of indigeneity in Sikkim-Darjeeling Himalaya through the lens of Sakela Sili dance.

Rohini's work is interdisciplinary, collaborative, and community-engaged, involving diverse stakeholders such as UK-based Himalayan diasporic Indigenous organisations (including Kirat Rai Yayokkha, Kirat Yakthung Chumlung, and World Newah Organisation UK) and grassroots cultural-heritage groups in Sikkim and Darjeeling. She is the co-editor of European Bulletin of Himalayan Research (EBHR) and an international board member of Ethnic and Racial Studies journal. Outside academia, she has curated public events like the London Himalayan Short Film Festival (2024) and co-founded the Critical Himalayan Collective

Qualifications

• PhD (Sociology)- University of Manchester - 2019.
• MA (Sociology)- University of Manchester - 2015.
• BA (Hons) Sociology- Miranda House, University of Delhi - 2014.

Responsibility

Placement Convenor, Department of Social and Political Sciences

Project Co-Lead for Social and Political Sciences, Brunel Awarding Gap