People

Dr Hema Kiruppalini joined as Research Fellow with the Inter-Asia Engagements Cluster on 1 July 2022.

She has a PhD in History from the National University of Singapore. Her expertise lies in the field of history with a specific focus on trans-regional migration within the context of South Asia and Southeast Asia. Her research delves into critical questions related to empire, race, gender, soldiering, and socio-cultural histories. Her doctoral dissertation, which focused on reconstructing the social worlds and transnational history of Nepali Gurkha families in Asia, received scholarly accolades such as the BNAC PhD Dissertation Prize and the Craig A. Lockard Prize for Best Journal among others. At ARI she is working collaboratively with a research team on the project Archiving the Underclasses: Knowledge, Law, and Everyday Agency in Modern Southeast Asia which seeks to yield insights into the lives of marginalised communities in the region.