Utsavi Singh

My research focuses on landscapes of power in the Western Himalayan region of Ladakh. I am interested in the relationship between the built environment and strategies employed by different elite and non-elite groups to secure political legitimacy and to establish rules of social conduct, identities and hierarchies between the 10th and the 16th centuries CE. I look at structures of political and ritual importance, particularly Buddhist and cultic shrines and temples to understand their role in the socio-political ordering in early Ladakh.

Prior to coming to Stanford, I received my B.A. (Hons) in History from the University of Delhi and my M.A. and M.Phil in History from the Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi. After completing my M.Phil in 2015, I worked with Oxford University Press, India as a Social Sciences editor.