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Professor Dibyesh Anand, Head of School of Social Sciences

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Professor Dibyesh Anand, Head of School of Social Sciences

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Dibyesh was born in Bihar and educated in Bihar/Delhi in India and has continuing family ties there. An expert in postcolonial international relations, in terms of the region, his research and teaching include Hindu nationalism, Islamophobia, Kashmir, China-India border dispute, and Tibetan diaspora. He identifies as queer in personal and political terms.

For more, see https://www.westminster.ac.uk/about-us/our-people/directory/anand-dibyesh

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Dr Randhir K. Auluck,                     Head of School: Organisations, Economy & Society        

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Dr Randhir K. Auluck,                     Head of School: Organisations, Economy & Society        

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Randhir was born near Jallandhar, the Punjab, and still has relatives in the region. She has worked on several capacity building programmes in India, and her research interests include comparative public service reform, leadership, leadership development, and human resources development. Email: R.Auluck@westminster.ac.uk

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Fauzia was born in Dhaka, Bangladesh and has paternal family in Dhaka, Barisal and Chittagong. Her doctoral studies took her to rural North west Bangladesh (Rajshahi), and India (Bihar) where she lived with the Santal Adivasis community. She began her studies in human rights law and was instrumental in setting up the world’s first forced marriage desk within the UK Foreign Office in 2020. As an interdisciplinary scholar she has held numerous research and teaching posts, including as Joint Director of BA Anthropology and Law at LSE from 2008-2013. She currently works in the field of mental health, researching and writing as well as running a private therapy practice and weekly meditation group. For more see: Fauzia Knight (0000-0003-0845-9011) (orcid.org)

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Sobia Razzaq, Senior Lecturer in Law, School of Organisations, Economy and Society 

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Sobia Razzaq, Senior Lecturer in Law, School of Organisations, Economy and Society 

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Sobia was born in Birmingham, UK and thereafter moved to London, she is a second generation British Pakistani with family roots in Lahore, Pakistan. She has played an active role in engaging with various forms of inequalities prevalent in local and educational communities.

https://www.westminster.ac.uk/about-us/our-people/directory/razzaq-sobia

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Ripin Kalra, Senior Fellow, School of Architecture & Cities + Max Lock Centre

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Ripin Kalra, Senior Fellow, School of Architecture & Cities + Max Lock Centre

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Ripin has spent almost all his professional life working across UK and Indian Sub-continent. He grew up in Delhi where he studied architecture and started working with UK aid projects across Southern and Eastern India. His association with University of Westminster and Max Lock Centre (and its' founder Dr. Michael Theis) started in 1997, when he moved for higher studies to UK and joined the university in 1999. He has continued to work in 30 countries across Africa and Asia including India, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh. His research looks at international urban development, particularly community led development; Smart Cities; water resilience. He continues to work with Max Lock Centre in both UK and India. He leads postgraduate modules on Urban Risk & Resilience AND Environmental Policy, Assessment and Climate Change. He continues to stay engaged with multi-disciplinary discourses, practice and research across UK and the Indian Sub-continent. kalrar@wmin.ac.uk

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Professor Lindsay Bremner, Director of Research in the School of Architecture and Cities 

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Professor Lindsay Bremner, Director of Research in the School of Architecture and Cities 

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Lindsay led the European Research Council funded Monsoon Assemblages project for five years, studying the consequences of neo-liberal development for urban monsoonal life in Chennai, Dhaka and Yangon. She now leads a British Academy funded project titled ‘Reimagining the Good City from Ennore Creek, Chennai,’ which is examining these concerns at a local level. websites: http://monass.org, http://exhibition.monass.org

email: l.bremner@westminster.ac.uk

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Dr Kalpana Surendranath MSc PhD PGCHE SfHEA FRSB, Leader of Genome Engineering Laboratory

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Dr Kalpana Surendranath MSc PhD PGCHE SfHEA FRSB, Leader of Genome Engineering Laboratory

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Born and raised in a remote village in south India, Kalpana's career encompassed an adventurous journey through different socio-political and economical landscapes of few countries of the globe. She introduced the 2020 Nobel prize winning CRISPR technology extensively to both teaching and research in Life Sciences and established the first ever genome engineering laboratory in a post 92 university in UK.
For more details:
www.westmingenlab.uk
https://www.westminster.ac.uk/about-us/our-people/directory/surendranath-kalpana-0

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Radha D’Souza, Professor of Law, Development and Conflict Studies, Westminster Law School

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Radha D’Souza, Professor of Law, Development and Conflict Studies, Westminster Law School

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Radha was born in small village in Tamil Nadu. She studied, lived and worked for most of her life in Bombay (now Mumbai). She worked as trade unionist, a campaigner for democratic rights, and practiced as a public interest lawyer in Mumbai. She has lived and worked in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Radha is a scholar, social justice activist, public intellectual and writer whose work transcends genres and disciplines in search of justice for the world.

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Viju Patel - Counselling Service Manager

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Viju Patel - Counselling Service Manager

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Viju was born in Gujarat, India and raised in London. She still has close family in India. Viju has worked in counselling and mental health in the voluntary, FE and HE sector , for over 25 years.  patelv1@westminster.ac.uk

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Dr Sumita Ketkar, School of Organisations, Economy and Society. 

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Dr Sumita Ketkar, School of Organisations, Economy and Society. 

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Sumita was born in Rewa, a small town in Madhya Pradesh, India. Brought up in an armed forces environment, she had the privilege of living and studying across different regions/cities in India. Sumita teaches Human Resource Management (Reward) and Research methods. She is also the liaison tutor  for two of UOW's important partners- WIUT and IIT and is an International Coordinator for WBS (focussed around India).  She is currently involved in a  project on Ecopreneurs in Developing countries.
Email: ketkars@westminster.ac.uk

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Dr. Pooja Basnett, Senior Lecturer in Biological Sciences, School of Life Sciences(SLS) 

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Dr. Pooja Basnett, Senior Lecturer in Biological Sciences, School of Life Sciences(SLS) 

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Pooja was born in Sikkim (India) situated in Eastern Himalaya and has her family there. She studied in Tamil Nadu, a South Indian state. She completed her doctoral degree in Applied Biotechnology from the University of Westminster. As a post-doctoral researcher, Pooja was a part of European FP7 projects focused on medical device development. She leads the 'Designing a Sustainable world' module and teaches other modules hosted by the Biological Sciences course. She is a co-course leader for Biological Sciences and the sustainability representative for SLS. Pooja's research is focused on bacterial bioplastics and their high-impact applications.
https://westminsterresearch.westminster.ac.uk/researcher/89245?section=researchOutputs

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Dr. Pooja Basnett is a lecturer in Biological Sciences. She received a Cavendish scholarship from the University of Westminster to complete a PhD in Applied Biotechnology titled ''Biosynthesis of Polyhydroxyalkanoates and their application in medical device development'.

Following her PhD, she worked as a lead postdoc in the European Union-funded project - ReBioStent aimed at developing drug-eluting biodegradable stents. She also worked as a postdoc on other EU projects - NEURIMP which focused on the development of nerve conduits for peripheral nerve repair; POLYBIOSKIN - aimed at developing biocompatible and biodegradable skin contact products. She was also involved in an EPSRC funded project titled CYCLOPS which focused on the development of a wound healing patch with Artificial Intelligence (AI). She has gained expertise in a variety of disciplines including- Fermentation Technology, Downstream Processing, Polymer processing, Biomaterial characterization, Biocompatibility studies, Antibacterial testing, Drug Delivery, and Tissue Engineering.

Research Interests

Her research focuses on the production of bioplastics using bacteria and their application in medicine. She has worked on producing novel biopolymers such as polyhydroxyalkanoates via bacterial fermentation process using a range of waste streams. Polymer characterization, processing, biocompatibility with the mammalian cells and its degradation behavior forms the core aspect of her research. Her research findings have been published in several peer-reviewed journals.

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Dr. Pooja Basnett is a lecturer in Biological Sciences. She received a Cavendish scholarship from the University of Westminster to complete a PhD in Applied Biotechnology titled ''Biosynthesis of Polyhydroxyalkanoates and their application in medical device development'. Following her PhD, she worked as a lead postdoc in the European Union-funded project - ReBioStent aimed at developing drug-eluting biodegradable stents.

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Annapurna was born in Ranikhet, Uttarakhand in the north of India and has lived in most parts of the country. Her parents come from different regions and her maternal grandparents come from present-day Pakistan. She has recently completed her PhD focusing on the Indian state and her research interests include postcolonial nation-states, gender and militarism, Hindu nationalism and studying knowledge construction and circulation.
Email: A.Menon@westminster.ac.uk.

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Sumita is an architect, teacher and writer with awards including the UIA:UNESCO International, Women In Business and Atkins Inspire. Sumita studied architecture at Delhi where she had grown up and received a scholarship to study the M Phil in Environmental Design at Cambridge University. She has, since then lived and practiced architecture in the UK. She founded Architects For Change, the Equality forum at Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), and is past Chair of Women In Architecture. Sumita has served on many RIBA committees for over 25 years, including the Professional Standards panel and the Ethics and Sustainable Development Commission. She is a nationally elected RIBA Councillor and the Board Trustee for Education. Sumita served as a non-executive Director in the NHS for nine years. Sumita is a trustee of Architects Benevolent Society, Waltham Abbey Royal Gunpowder Mills and Commonwealth Association of Architects; and founding director of Charushila, an environmental design charity. She has also taught sustainable design for over 25 years, is visiting Professor at the Politecnico di Milano, lecturer and external examiner at several UK universities. Sumita is the author of many books and publications on architecture and sustainable design.
Sumita received an OBE for services to architecture in 2021.

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Rakesh is an artist and lecturer working with photography, fine art and digital media. He is a second generation British Asian, born in Bromley, Kent, UK to Hindu Punjabi parents. They migrated to the UK from Nairobi, Kenya but originated from Delhi, India.
His personal work has been exhibited internationally and his research published. A current project is looking at if and how images influence cultural/religious divides.
He is also the co-founder of pic.london, a platform to support artists working with images. In this capacity he has partnered with several institutions including UoW to deliver events and exhibitions.
In a previous career Rakesh worked for several years as an IT professional and project manager.

www.rakeshmohindra.com

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Ashok is a documentary filmmaker - who's been making documentary films for broadcast by all the main channels in the UK, the US and other countries for more than 25 years. He is currently working as a practice-based lecturer on the TV and and Film BA's and the MA in Multimedia Journalism.

Ashok was born in Liverpool, to Hindu parents of mixed Indian heritage. His father is from Andhra Pradesh in the south of India and his mother was born in Lahore in what is now Pakistan. She was a child of the Partition - and one of the millions who were forced to leave their homes in 1947 as the new border was created between Pakistan and India. Her family re-settled in Delhi and sadly has never returned to see her former home in Lahore.

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Samir Pandya, Assistant Head of the School of Architecture and Cities, Director of International and Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Lead

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Samir Pandya, Assistant Head of the School of Architecture and Cities, Director of International and Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Lead

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Samir was born in Gujarat, India, moving to London in the mid-1970s.  He is an architect, academic and editor.  Influenced by his childhood experience of racism and an insular caste-based diasporic community in South-East London, he chose to examine questions of representation and identity during his architectural education (including his RIBA Lovell Memorial Award-winning MA thesis ‘In Search of Authenticity: The Architecture of Balkrishna Doshi and the Search for Indian Identity’). This interest continued through his teaching practice at the University of Westminster, including the co-development (with Lesley Lokko) and launch of a design-based Masters course called MA Architecture, Cultural Identity & Globalisation (which he led for ten years).  He has been a Visiting Professor at APIED School of Architecture, Anand (India), and regularly collaborates with architecture schools in India.

For more, see:

https://www.westminster.ac.uk/about-us/our-people/directory/pandya-samir

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Dr Vinood Patel, Reader in Clinical Biochemistry

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Dr Vinood Patel, Reader in Clinical Biochemistry

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Vinood’s parents came from Navsari in Gurajat, India and emigrated in the 1960’s to London, before relocating to Swindon, where he was born.  He has many happy childhood memories of visiting India and has future aspirations of travelling through India to deepen his ancestral connections. At an early age Vinood had a strong interest in science and working in the NHS. He studied at King’s College Hospital and then worked in America for 6 years at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center. He then returned to the UK and set us his group on liver disorders and biomarker research, where he has actively published in this field. Vinood is also the course leader for MSc Biomedical Sciences – Clinical Biochemistry.
For more, see https://www.westminster.ac.uk/about-us/our-people/directory/patel-vinood

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Sharan Bhambra, Academic Standards Manager

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Sharan Bhambra, Academic Standards Manager

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Sharan is a British Indian born in Bedford, UK to Sikh parents. Sharan’s father was born and raised in Jallandhar, India and her mother was born and raised in Nairobi, Kenya. Sharan still has relatives in the Punjab region and has regularly visited the family since childhood.

Sharan has worked for the University of Westminster since 2005. Email S.Bhambra2@westminster.ac.uk

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Pippa Catterall, Professor of History and Policy

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Pippa Catterall, Professor of History and Policy

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Pippa founded the journal National Identities in 1999 and is currently co-editing a special issue for it on 'Nation, Narration and Nationalism in Popular Bollywood Movies'

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Iram is a second generation British Muslim Pakistani of Punjabi heritage born in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire. Her parents are from Islamabad and emigrated to the U.K. along with her three older siblings in the late 1970’s. She is particularly fond of Pakistan with close family ties having regularly visited since childhood; travelling far and wide across Pakistan covering the Northern regions of Gilgit Baltistan, Kashmir, through Punjab right down to Sindh in the South.  She takes a particular interest in the history of Pakistan/India pre partition.  At Westminster where Iram has worked since 2009, she guides students to achieve their career aspirations through 121 coaching as well as via the delivery of career management skills workshops for various employability modules.  She is an alumna of Westminster BSc (Hons) in Business IT, 2003 and MA in Management, 2013. She recently graduated from the University of Warwick with a PG Dip in Careers Education Information and Guidance in HE.  Outside of University, Iram has worked as a Chair for a charity in Aylesbury which helps disadvantaged and vulnerable minority ethnic women access mainstream services and support.

Contact: i.sial@westminster.ac.uk
https://www.linkedin.com/in/iram-sial

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Aditya Sharma: Admissions Advisor, South Asia Team

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Aditya Sharma: Admissions Advisor, South Asia Team

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Aditya was born in Delhi in India & spent around 4 years of his professional journey in UK education. Currently, he is associated with the University of Westminster as an Admission Advisor under which he is playing a crucial part in taking care of all the WBS applications across South Asia.

Email: A.Sharma2@westminster.ac.uk

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Gariema Sharma: Regional Recruitment & Marketing Advisor, South Asia Team

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Gariema Sharma: Regional Recruitment & Marketing Advisor, South Asia Team

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Gariema was born in a small town in Uttar Pradesh and studied in Delhi, India. She had a privilege of working with UK Higher Education Institutions in past decade. Gariema is working with University of Westminster in the capacity of Regional Adviser, Recruitment & Marketing in the South Asia team based out of Delhi, India.

Her role involves engaging with all stakeholders in South Asia. She also liaison with UoW partner Institution IIT in Sri Lanka.

Email: g.sharma@westminster.ac.uk

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Rachna Rana: Senior Admissions Advisor, South Asia Team

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Rachna Rana: Senior Admissions Advisor, South Asia Team

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Rachna is working as Senior admissions advisor for University of Westminster. Having expertise in South Asian qualifications, she has done a lot of work on equivalence of south Asian qualification to UK admissions requirements. At University of Westminster, Rachna has been working since 2014, screening applications of south Asian applicants and assisting them throughout their admissions journey.

Email: r.rana@westminster.ac.uk

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Sonal Vaid: Admissions Advisor, South Asia Team

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Sonal Vaid: Admissions Advisor, South Asia Team

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Sonal was born in Delhi, India. She is working as an admissions advisor for South Asia regions. She studied Business & Management in her graduation.
She has couple of years’ experience in the same industry and joined University of Westminster in 2021.
Email: s.vaid@westminster.ac.uk

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Manisha Khatee: Regional Recruitment & Marketing Advisor, South Asia Team

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Manisha Khatee: Regional Recruitment & Marketing Advisor, South Asia Team

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Manisha was born in Kolkata and raised in Darjeeling, a hill station in the foot hills of the Himalayas. Her grandparents from both sides immigrated to India from Nepal for better opportunities. She completed her masters from Delhi University. She has lived in Delhi and the Middle East in the course of her career. She now lives with her family in Delhi and works as a Regional Recruitment and Marketing Advisor for South Asia at University of Westminster.

Email: m.khatee@westminster.ac.uk

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Ayushi Vasudeva: Admissions Advisor, South Asia Team

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Ayushi Vasudeva: Admissions Advisor, South Asia Team

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Ayushi was born and  brought up in New Delhi , India . Her Maternal Grandparents come from Lahore, Pakistan.

She completed her undergraduation from Delhi University in Bachelors of Commerce and currently pursuing MBA (HRM) from NMIMS (Mumbai). She is particularly fond of Stage Drama/Acting and traveling.

I have recently joined University of Westminster, South Asia Team and have been managing DCD admissions
Email: a.vasudeva@westminster.ac.uk

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Harkirat Sahni: Ast. Recruitment Advisor, South Asia Team

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Harkirat Sahni: Ast. Recruitment Advisor, South Asia Team

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Harkirat was born in New Delhi, India in a Punjabi, joint family. He is convent educated and completed his Bachelors in Commerce from the University of Delhi; following which he pursued his Master’s in Marketing from University College Dublin. Harkirat has well rounded international experience in Sales and Marketing. He is working at the University of Westminster as the Assistant Recruitment Adviser for South Asia

Email: h.sahni@westminster.ac.uk

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Dr Nitasha Kaul, Associate Professor (Reader) in Politics and International Relations, Centre for the Study of Democracy, School of Social Sciences

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Dr Nitasha Kaul, Associate Professor (Reader) in Politics and International Relations, Centre for the Study of Democracy, School of Social Sciences

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Nitasha grew up in Delhi and is originally from Srinagar in the Kashmir Valley. She is a multidisciplinary academic, novelist, poet, artist, and economist. She holds a joint doctorate in Economics and Philosophy (2003) and an MSc in Economics with a specialisation in public policy (1998) from the University of Hull, and a BA (Honours) in Economics from SRCC, University of Delhi.  She has previously been an Associate Professor in Creative Writing in Bhutan and an Assistant Professor in Economics at the Bristol Business School. Over the last two decades, she has published on themes concerning international relations, geopolitics, democracy, political economy, technology/AI, identity, rise of right-wing nationalism, feminist and postcolonial critiques, Bhutan, India and Kashmir. She is the recipient of multiple research grants and awards for her research and writing. She is the author of over 140 publications, including 7 single-authored or edited scholarly and literary books, book chapters in numerous critical and ground-breaking edited collections, plus peer-reviewed original research articles in numerous journals across humanities and social science disciplines. She has wide recognition as a public intellectual and has delivered invited lectures and keynotes at universities, institutions, and policy-making bodies around the world, addressing diverse audiences within and outside academia. She is on twitter at @NitashaKaul. For details and links to all her work, see CV at https://nitashakaul.com/CURRICULUM_VITAE.html

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Dr Ipshita Basu is Associate Professor in International Relations at the University of Westminster.  Her research is in the area of Development Justice focusing on the political struggles of indigenous communities and marginalised urban groups.  She also writes a popular blog called Politics of the New Normal. Originally from India, she grew up in Kolkata and Bangalore and migrated to London in 2001 for higher education. She also lived and worked in Bangladesh for 2 years. Ipshita holds a PhD in International Development from the University of Bath and M.A. in Gender, Literature and Modernity from University of Warwick. Before joining Westminster, she was Assistant Professor in International Relations at University of Surrey (2012-2015) and Head of Research at BRAC University in Dhaka (2010-2012). 

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Dr Ipshita Basu is Associate Professor in International Relations at the University of Westminster.  Her research is in the area of Development Justice focusing on the political struggles of indigenous communities and marginalised urban groups.  She also writes a popular blog called Politics of the New Normal. Originally from India, she grew up in Kolkata and Bangalore and migrated to London in 2001 for higher education. She also lived and worked in Bangladesh for 2 years. Ipshita holds a PhD in International Development from the University of Bath and M.A. in Gender, Literature and Modernity from University of Warwick. Before joining Westminster, she was Assistant Professor in International Relations at University of Surrey (2012-2015) and Head of Research at BRAC University in Dhaka (2010-2012). 

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Email: basui@westminster.ac.uk

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Professor Alexandra Hughes, Deputy Vice–Chancellor for Global Engagement and Employability

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Professor Alexandra Hughes, Deputy Vice–Chancellor for Global Engagement and Employability

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Alex’s parents met in pre-Independence India, where her Welsh father was a civil servant. Her Anglo-Indian mother was born in the South Indian city then known as Bangalore, and was educated in Mysore (Mysuru). She is deeply proud of her family connection to South India, which has had a significant impact on her personal, professional and political life.

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Professor Mohammed Gulrez Zariwala, Director, Centre for Nutraceuticals

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Professor Mohammed Gulrez Zariwala, Director, Centre for Nutraceuticals

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Gulrez was born and raised in Mumbai, India. He came to London to pursue further postgraduate and doctoral education following his undergraduate degree in Pharmacy, and has lived here ever since. He first joined the University as a Research Associate in 2009, and is currently a Professor of Translational Physiology and founder Director of the Centre for Nutraceuticals, a first of a kind initiative focusing on research and innovation in the fields of dietary supplements, wellbeing and nutrition. Gulrez retains strong family ties in India and regularly travels back. He is also actively involved in helping the University forge educational and business relationships in India.

Email: zariwam@westminster.ac.uk

For more:

https://www.westminster.ac.uk/about-us/our-people/directory/zariwala-mohammed-gulrez