Saumya Maheshwari
Doctoral Researcher
Email: saumya.maheshwari@bmu.edu.in
Saumya is currently pursuing her MPhil/ PhD at SOAS. Her research focuses on statutory restraints on inter-faith marriages in India. She is interested in using the ethnographic method to understand how inter-faith couples navigate these restraints to establish valid marital relationships.
Saumya obtained her first degree in law from National Law School of India University (2016), and an LLM in Law and Gender from SOAS (2021) with the support of the Felix Trust. Before joining academia, she worked as a matrimonial disputes lawyer in Delhi, and with legal research and advocacy organizations on issues at the intersections of law, gender, and sexuality, including sexual health , freedom from gender-based violence, and legal remedies for gender identity and sexual orientation-based discrimination in the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights. Saumya is an Assistant Professor at the School of Law, BML Munjal University (currently on leave).
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Research interests: Family law; law and religion; performative religiosity; legal anthropology
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