Vipanchika Sahasri Bhagyanagar

Vipanchika Sahasri Bhagyanagar has a master’s degree in political studies from Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi (where she topped the class of ninety-six students) and a bachelor’s degree in history and politics from Miranda House, University of Delhi. Vipanchika’s research interests span the broad areas of prison studies, punishment, justice, sexuality, and violence. She is interested in prison abolitionist movements and literature. She was part of the anti-curfew movement during her bachelor’s in Delhi. As the President of the Students’ Union then, a series of protests and negotiations under her leadership culminated in abolishing the curfew at Miranda House Residence, University of Delhi. At Purdue, she founded the Progressive South Asia Collective, an educational and scholar-activist club. She is working with Dr Tithi Bhattacharya on her PhD in the History Department. In 2024, Vipanchika received the Harold D. Woodman Graduate Research Award for investigating the binary of “ordinary” and “political” prisoners in colonial Indian archives at the National Archives of India, Delhi.