Biography

Dr. Santvana Kumar is an interdisciplinary legal scholar whose research and teaching examine caste, gender, and power within law and society. Her work combines feminist legal theory, critical caste studies, and ethnography to explore how Dalit women navigate legal systems in contexts of violence and exclusion.

Having grown up across different countries and cultures, Dr. Kumar brings a third-culture perspective to her scholarship and pedagogy. This orientation informs her comparative approach to law and her commitment to fostering classrooms that engage critically with identity, exclusion, and justice. She has presented her research at major academic forums including Brandeis University, the British Association of South Asian Studies, and the Indian Association for Women’s Studies, and was one of twenty participants selected from South Asia for the International Hague Academy of International Law’s External Program.

Drawing on Dalit feminist thought, Black feminist theory, and critical race jurisprudence, her scholarship challenges dominant legal epistemologies and advances alternative frameworks for justice that center marginalized voices.