Dr. Anukriti Dixit

• Scholar of gender studies, feminist theory, public policy, gender and social policy
• Feminist, anti-caste, poststructuralist researcher
• Dissertation: "Governing through 'problems': Problematising anti-sexual harassment at workplace policies in the Indian context", submission: January 2022
• at the IZFG since: 2019-2020 (through the Swiss government excellence scholarship) and subsequently 2022- ongoing (as Advanced postdoc scholar and lecturer)

I have been a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer at the Interdisciplinary Center for Gender Studies (ICFG) since 2022. In 2024 I was promoted to advanced postdoctoral scholar and lecturer. My primary research interests are critical policy studies, gender studies, feminist theory and anti-caste theory and practice, epistemic justice and critical approaches to neoliberalism(s) and nationalism(s). Specifically, I study gender and social policies, applying poststructuralist and intersectional feminist analytical tools to the study of how policy ‘problems’ are formulated – what is included in policy proposals and what remains excluded?

I have completed my PhD at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (2016-2022). Prior to that, I earned my Master’s degree in sustainable development at HEC Paris (2014-2015) and an integrated bachelor’s and master’s degree in Software Engineering from VIT University, India. At present, I am working on two projects.

a. My postdoc project where I analyse the relationship between development aid and gender-based violence – particularly in the Indian context. The analysis is done from a feminist poststructuralist perspective.

b. The project ‘The many futures of Gender: Oral histories of feminist theory’ with the Lead Investigator Prof. Purtschert, where we interview feminist scholars from all over the world, to produce varied accounts of feminist theories, activism, praxis and worldmaking.

I am also an editor for the working paper series ‘Gender(ed) thoughts’ housed at the University of Goettingen and a co-editor for the volume ‘Doing gender studies: Producing research otherwise’ – a volume that showcases the multi-lateral co-operation between the graduate schools (gender studies) of Bern, Basel and Zurich. I am a member of the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR), the Evaluation Community of India (ECOI), the Swiss Association for Gender Studies (SAGS) and the British Sociological Association (BSA).

In 2022 (July-August 2022), I was a visiting scholar at the University of Westminster’s Center for the Study of Democracy. In 2019, I received the Swiss Government Excellence scholarship for one year (2019-2020) for conducting part of my doctoral research at University of Bern. In 2018, I received the Ford Foundation and Institute of Social Sciences Trust’s grant titled ‘Small Grant for feminist research’ – for developing a policy evaluation framework using feminist theories.

I strongly advocate for intersectional, feminist, secular and anti-caste politics and have addressed this in my work (Dixit, 2023). This has also been the focus of two workshops I organised in 2023, with funding from the University of Bern, on decolonialities, postcolonialities and nationalist pasts, presents and futures. Together with Prof. Purtschert, I co-conduct the (ongoing) ‘intersectional feminist research colloquium’ – a platform for graduate scholars and early-mid career academics to present and discuss our research with a specific focus on intersectionality.

In terms of teaching, I was sole-instructor for the course ‘Power politics and poliicymaking’ (Spring 2024). I am co-instructing the course: Women’s political participation: An international overview of theory and policy (Spring 2025). I also co-instructed ‘Feminist and postcolonial critiques of neoliberalism’, together with Prof. Purtschert in the fall of 2022. I am also the co-conductor of the (ongoing and recurring) intersectional feminist research colloquium hosted together with Prof. Purtschert and have instructed the ‘gender medicine’ class held for the ethics week of medical resident training at the University hospital in Bern.

Academic CV available for download: 23-11-2023 CV Dixit

Thematic priorities

• Social inequality and feminist theory
• Aid, development and gender-based violence
• Intersectionality as theory and practice
• Sexual harassment, perpetrator impunity and workplace inequalities
• Epistemic injustice and anti-caste knowledge production
• Contesting the ‘scientificity’ of policy knowledges – feminist and poststructuralist critiques
• Problematizing legal technologies e.g. the ‘reasonable person’, principles of ‘natural’ justice and quid pro quo

Methodological priorities

• Qualitative research
• Feminist and intersectional methodologies
• Critical and feminist methodologies
• Poststructuralist and postcolonial research

Manuscripts published

Dixit, A. (2024). Negotiating caste, gendered and colonial subjectivities in the neoliberal academy. GENDER–Zeitschrift für Geschlecht, Kultur und Gesellschaft, 16(3), 203-216.

Banday, M.U.L. & Dixit, A. (in press). Dispossession and development as ‘disaster’: An anti-caste and decolonial rendering. Gender and Development. DOI: 10.1080/13552074.2024.2424624

Dixit, A. (2023). Caste (d) knowledges:(Self)-problematising epistemic impunity and caste-privilege in academia. Organization.

Dixit, A., & Banday, M.U.L. (2022). Problematising the digital gender gap: invoking decoloniality and intersectionality for inclusive policymaking. Gender & Development, 30(3), 437-457.

Chapter: Dixit, A. (forthcoming in 2025). Problematisation as method: Deliberating the ‘reasonable person/woman’ standard in anti-sexual harassment policies. Routledge Handbook of Gender Based Violence.

Books edited/authored

Sole-authored Book
Dixit, A. (2024). Anti-Sexual Harassment Laws in India: Problematising Caste(d), Postcolonial and Neoliberal Policies. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN-10: 3031736524.

Co-editor for Edited Volume
Bolokan, D., Dixit, A., Rutishauser, M., Wartmann, J. (in press, planned release March 2025). Doing Gender Studies: Producing Knowledge Otherwise. Seismo Verlag. ISBN: 978-3-03777-310-9.

Co-editor for Edited Volume
Dixit, A., Banday, M.U.L., & Amacker, M. (forthcoming in 2026). Reimagining work, workers and workplaces: Decolonial and intersectional contestations. Palgrave Macmillan (Contract signed).

Book Chapters

Dixit, A. & Banday, M. (2025). Postcolonial pandemic: Inadequate science, deferential business and disposable lives of the Global South. Doing research otherwise, anthology volume published by Seismo (forthcoming in March 2025).

Dixit, A & Samar (2024). Discourses of Gender, Religion and National Security in the Legal Mediation of Citizenship: A Case Study from India. Handbook: Religion, Gender, & Sexuality. Bloomsbury. ISBN: 9781350257184

Dixit, A. (2024). Participatory development: A critical analysis of Ostrom’s framework of seven design principles in context of social enterprises in India. Publishers: World Scientific. https://doi.org/10.1142/9789811286674_0004

Dixit, A., & Mathur, N. (2021). Evaluating policies and programs that address sexual harassment: A feminist deconstruction framework for the Indian context. In R. Nandi, & Sudarshan, R.M., (Eds.), Recognizing connectedness: The practice of feminist evaluation (pp. 87-161). Zubaan Books. ISBN: 978 93 90514 44 1.

Peer reviewed conference papers/presentations/panels

Submitted (decision pending).  Situated patriarchies: Mapping impunities and organizing solidarities across transnational cases of sexual violence. Gender, Work and Organisation Annual Conference, 2025.

Forthcoming conference stream: Thinking and Theorizing with the Global South(s): Alternative frameworks for work, management and organizational knowledge production
Co-convenor of the stream at the International Critical Management Studies Conference, 2025

Section co-chair for European Consortium of Political Research, 12-15^th August, 2024
Section title: “Challenges for health care politics and policies in (post)pandemic societies”
Section link: https://ecpr.eu/Events/Event/SectionDetails/1423

Theorizing Imperialist angst: Deliberating the Protests in Iran. British Sociological Association annual conference – Crisis, continuity and change, 3^rd-5^th April, 2024.

I walked to office six days post-COVID-19 to test my bodily strength: Hyper-ableism brought on by the Swiss insurance state. European Consortium of Political Research, 12-15^th August, 2024

Section co-chair for European Consortium of Political Research, 4-8^th September, 2023
Section title: “Varieties of Nationalism in Postcolonial, Neoliberal and Hetero-Patriarchal Times”
Section link: https://ecpr.eu/Events/Event/SectionDetails/1291

Banday, M.U.L. & Dixit, A. (2023). Decolonizing work: Unpacking the gendered-colonial distinctions between work from home and domestic work. Swiss Association for Gender Studies conference, 14^th and 15^th of September 2023. (After feedback at the conference, a reworked version of this paper has been prepared and  will be sent to Journal of Gender Studies)

Dixit, A. (01/12/2022). Anti-feminist backlash as epistemic practice. Feminist matterings conference, University of Oulu, December 2022.

Dixit, A (21/04/2022). Politicising ‘knowledge’ through a postcolonial lens: The context of anti-workplace harassment policies in India. British Sociological Association Annual conference, April 2022.

Dixit, A. & Banday, M.  (20/04/2022). Postcolonial pandemic: Inadequate science, deferential business and disposable lives of the Global South. British Sociological Association Annual conference, April 2022.

Dixit, A. (27/08/2021). “It is about compliance, not social justice”: Compliance as a neoliberal technology in India’s anti-sexual harassment policies. Work Employment and Society annual conference, 2021.

Dixit, A. (15/04/2021). Governing through ’problems’: public policies as discursive practices. British Sociological Association Annual Virtual Conference, April 2021

Dixit, A., Sarin, A., & Purtschert, P. (15/04/2020). Problematizing sexual harassment at workplaces in context of India’s policymaking. 39^th Indian Labour Process Conference (ILPC), University of Greenwich (virtually presented)

Dixit, A., & Mathur, N. (05/07/2021). Agency, hegemony and political participation: A critical look at the politics of parliamentary representation of women in India. European Conference of Politics and Gender (3-6^th July 2019).

Dixit, A. (2017). Participatory governance and the social enterprise. Authors: Anukriti Dixit. International Consortium for Innovation and Entrepreneurship Research, Christ University, Bangalore, 2017 (Best paper award).

Publications in other outlets

Dixit, A. (2024). Transnational frameworks for justice in cases of sexual violence. Published 18^th October 2024. https://theloop.ecpr.eu/the-many-facets-of-impunity-for-sexual-violence-in-india/

Dixit, A. (2023). Anti-sexual harassment policies in the workplace: Lessons from India. Published 8^th of March 2023. The Loop: Official magazine for the European Consortium of Political Research. URL: https://theloop.ecpr.eu/anti-sexual-harassment-policies-in-the-workplace-lessons-from-india/

Dixit, A. (2022). ‘Solutions’ for sexual harassment at workplaces in the Indian context. genderstudies, resident publication of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Gender Studies, University of Bern

Dixit, A. (2021). Manufacturing absences: The absence of caste in India’s anti Sexual Harassment legislation. Author: Anukriti Dixit. Published in ‘gendercampus.ch’. Published January 2021

Dixit, A. (2022). Book review - Undermining Intersectionality: The perils of powerblind feminism. Network magazine, British Sociological Association. Published in May 2022

• Strategic Management in Emerging Markets (Cornell University certificate course, Hyderabad, June 2012)
• Revenue Management & Dynamic Pricing (Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, November 2012)