Dejna Daulagupu

Ph.D. (Anthropology)

Dejna

Thesis / research topic: Jhum Cultivation, Food Sovereignty, Agrarian Relations, Indigenous Knowledge Systems, Tribal Land Rights, Protective Constitutional Mechanisms.

Dejna Daulagupu is currently pursuing a PhD in Anthropology at the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, National University of Singapore. Her PhD project explores transforming inter-generational, cross-community agrarian relations across the Barail range of hills in the Eastern Himalayas.

Focusing specifically on the practice of shifting cultivation, known as jhum in this region, her work draws on scholarship around Indigenous knowledge systems, tribal land rights, identity and protective mechanisms in North-East India. Prior to commencing her PhD, Dejna worked as a Research Associate with the North-Eastern Social Research Centre (NESRC), Guwahati.

Teaching Experience:

  • HS1504: Ex Machina? The Promises, Problems, and Potentials of AI

Book Chapter: 

  • Daulagupu, Dejna. (2026). In the Dusty Shadows of Development: Extraction and Dispossession in the Sixth Schedule town of Umrangso. In Vizokhole Ltu and Taniya Khangenbam (eds.) Tribal Land Alienation and the Law: Rights and Livelihood in the Northeast. Guwahati: North Eastern Social Research Centre.

Books: 

  • Ltu, Vizokhole., Daulagupu, Dejna and Alvir, Raysha. (2025) Politics of Tribal Land: Protective Mechanisms, Market and Identity in Northeast India. Guwahati: North Eastern Social Research Centre.
  • Dutta, Nipasa, and Daulagupu, Dejna. (2024). Forests and Fields of Imagined Futures: Indigenous Women and Conservation Practices in Northeast India. Guwahati: North Eastern Social Research Centre.

Website Articles/ Photo Essays: 

  • Daulagupu, Dejna, and Kikon, Dolly. 2023. “Following Judima in Dima Hasao: A Rice Wine Story”. The Locavore. (May 23).
  • Daulagupu, Dejna. 2023. “Understanding the Naga Repatriation Project through the Graphic Novel- A Path Home”. Adivasi Lives Matter (April 14).
  • Daulagupu, Dejna. 2024. “When ethnographic research meets reel time: A review of Wild Swans”. The Arunachal Times. (July 6).

Contact Info:
Email: dejnadaulagupu@u.nus.edu(opens in new tab)(opens in new tab)