About

Saiba Varma is an anthropologist and writer based in San Diego, California. She grew up in India, Bangladesh, Hong Kong, and China, before moving to the United States to attend Franklin and Marshall College. In 2013, she received a PhD from Cornell University. 

 

Trained as a medical and psychological anthropologist, she has spent more than 15 years researching the psychology of war in South Asia, particularly the highly militarized region of Kashmir. ​This work highlights the psychic, social and political impacts of occupation, as well as how communities resist, survive and thrive in such conditions.

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Her research and writing have been supported by the Corsicana Artists and Writers Residency, Mesa Refuge, the Social Science Research Council, the University of California, San Diego Academic Senate, the University of California's Humanities Research Institute, the Wenner Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, and others.

 

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