I am a Postdoctoral Researcher (Oberassistent) at the Institute for European Global Studies and the Department of Political Science, University of Basel. My work builds on my PhD in Development Sociology from Cornell University, where I studied the spatial dynamics of Hindu nationalist violence in Ahmedabad.

My postdoctoral research extends this focus to examine transnational authoritarianism and repression, exploring how infrastructural development and diaspora relations shape contemporary forms of state-sanctioned violence and collective resistance.

• South Asian politics in global context
• Urban dispossession and segregation
• Theories of violence
• Nationalism and authoritarianism
• Transnational repression
• Interdisciplinary and relational methodologies

I study the articulations of militant nationalism and urban dispossession in India from the perspective of those compelled to make life at the margins of the city. My research primarily engages with theories of violence and critical urbanism and rests on a multi-scalar ethnography primarily conducted in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. Through my work, I aim to highlight how the experiences, memories, and practices of supposed 'surplus populations' both constitute and potentially undermine the hegemony of neoliberal nationalism in India.

2025–present: Postdoctoral Researcher, Institute for European Global Studies & Department of Political Science, University of Basel

2019–2024: Lecturer and Associated Researcher, Institute for European Global Studies, University of Basel

2025: Ph.D., Development Sociology, Cornell University
Dissertation: From Riots to Dispossession: The Travels and Transformations of Hindu Nationalist Violence in Ahmedabad

2015: M.A. International Affairs & Governance, University of St. Gallen

2013: M.A. International Development (South Asia), Sciences Po Paris

2012: B.A. International Affairs, University of St. Gallen

Bakonyi, J., Giraudo, M. E., Kapoor, S., & Langenohl, A. (2025). Infrastructures and Capitalist World Ordering. International Political Sociology, 19(3), 1–24.

Weber, R., Kapoor, S., Morell, S., & von Rütte, B. (2025). The Situation of the Tibetan and Uyghur Communities in Switzerland: Actual and Perceived Exertions of Pressure. Research report commissioned by Switzerland’s Federal Office of Justice (FOJ) and State Secretariat for Migration (SEM), 1–40.

Kapoor, S. (2024). Zwischen Ost und West: Indiens geopolitischer Spagat / Entre l'Est et l'Ouest: le grand écart géopolitique de l'Inde. Die Volkswirtschaft / La Vie Économique, September, 20–23.

Kapoor, S. (2023). Resisting a Hegemonic Spatiotemporal Order: Hindu Nationalist Violence and Subterranean Agency in Ahmedabad. In A. Jenss & M. Albrecht (Eds.), The Spatiality and Temporality of Urban Violence. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 81–108.

Zinda, J. A., & Kapoor, S. (2019). Metabolic Fractures: How Household Livelihood Practices Differentiate Agricultural Input Use in Southwest China. Journal of Rural Studies, 71, 1–12.

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/shreykapoor/