FACULTY
Dr Saloni Kapur is an Assistant Professor of International Studies at FLAME University, specializing in critical security studies with a focus on South Asia. She earned her PhD in International Relations from Lancaster University, an MA in International Relations from the University of Warwick, and a BA in Economics from Savitribai Phule Pune University.
Her current research interests centre on the intersection of decoloniality, populism, and India. Dr Kapur explores how the rise of right-wing populism in India challenges decolonial theory's normative assumptions.
Dr Kapur's academic journey began when she spent a semester as a High Ability Non-Resident Scholar at the University of Minnesota's College of Natural Resources during the September 11 attacks. This experience sparked her interest in international security studies, leading her to pursue an MA in International Relations.
At FLAME, Dr Kapur teaches courses on Political Thought, Government and Politics of the United States, Non-Traditional Security Studies, and Traversing the Pakistan/India Boundary. Her teaching philosophy emphasizes democratic classrooms and critical thinking. She was recognized with a Certificate of Commendation for Outstanding Teaching Performance in the 2020-21 academic year.
Before her academic career, Dr Kapur gained valuable experience at Control Risks, International SOS, and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, focusing on security issues that later became the subject of her PhD thesis.
Her current research explores how hierarchies within indigenous societies challenge the assumptions of decoloniality, examining the interplay between far-right nationalism, decoloniality, and emerging non-Western economies. Dr Kapur's work has resulted in conference papers and a book chapter in 2023-24, with plans for a workshop to bring scholars together on this topic.
Dr Kapur is the recipient of Research Grants from FLAME University and an Early Career Researcher Global South Bursary from the British International Studies Association (BISA). These awards have facilitated her presentations at prestigious international conferences, including the BISA 2021 virtual conference and the 16th European International Studies Association (EISA) Pan-European Conference on International Relations in 2023.
She is a co-editor of Regional Security in South Asia and the Gulf (Routledge, 2023), examining security linkages in South Asia and the Persian Gulf, and Securitisation in the Non-West (Routledge, 2019), which explores securitisation theory in non-Western contexts. Her monograph, Pakistan after Trump: Great Power Responsibility in a Multi-Polar World (Cambridge Scholars, 2021), investigates security in 21st-century Pakistan from an English School perspective, addressing great-power responsibility for regional insecurity.
Research Articles Published in Q2 Journals
- Mabon, Simon, and Saloni Kapur. 2022. “The Complexity of (Super)Complexes: Pakistan, India and West Asia.” In “South Asia and the Gulf: Transregional Relations, Order, Human Rights and Migration,” edited by Saloni Kapur, Umer Karim and Simon Mabon. Special issue, Global Discourse 13, no. 1 (September). https://doi.org/10.1332/204378921X16588505305495. (Cited 1 time)
- Kapur, Saloni. 2018. “From Copenhagen to Uri and across the Line of Control:India’s ‘Surgical Strikes’ as a Case of Securitisation in Two Acts.” In “Securitisation in the Non-West,” edited by Saloni Kapur and Simon Mabon. Special issue, Global Discourse 8, no. 1 (January): 62-79. https://doi.org/10.1080/23269995.2017.1406633. (Cited 21 times)
Book Published by International Publisher
- Kapur, Saloni. 2021. Pakistan after Trump: Great Power Responsibility in a Multi-Polar World. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars. (Cited 2 times)
Book Chapters in International Books
- Kapur, Saloni. Forthcoming. “The Dangers of Decoloniality and the Question of Decolonising Human Rights in India.” In Whither Politics and Policy in South Asia: A Critical Understanding of the Actors, Institutions and Processes, edited by Muhammad Shoaib Pervez and Asad Rehman. Abingdon, UK: Routledge.
- Kapur, Saloni. 2023. “India, the Persian Gulf and the Emergence of a Supercomplex.” In Regional Security in South Asia and the Gulf, edited by Umer Karim and Saloni Kapur, 16-38. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. https://doi.org/ 10.4324/9781003283058-2. (Cited 3 times)
- Karim, Umer, and Saloni Kapur. 2023. Introduction to Regional Security in South Asia and the Gulf, edited by Umer Karim and Saloni Kapur, 1-15. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. https://doi.org/ 10.4324/9781003283058-1.
- Kapur, Saloni. 2019. “From Copenhagen to Uri and across the Line of Control: India’s ‘Surgical Strikes’ as a Case of Securitisation in Two Acts.” In Securitisation in the Non-West, edited by Simon Mabon and Saloni Kapur, 62-79. Abingdon, UK: Routledge.
- Kapur, Saloni. 2019. “Review of ‘Recursion or Rejection? Securitization Theory Faces Islamist Violence and Foreign Religions,’ by Mona Kanwal Sheikh.” In Securitisation in the Non-West, edited by Simon Mabon and Saloni Kapur, 39-41. Abingdon, UK: Routledge.
- Kapur, Saloni, and Simon Mabon. 2019. Introduction to Securitisation in the Non-West, edited by Simon Mabon and Saloni Kapur, 1-4. Abingdon, UK: Routledge.
Edited Books Published by International Publishers
- Karim, Umer, and Saloni Kapur, eds. 2023. Regional Security in South Asia and theGulf. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003283058.
- Mabon, Simon, and Saloni Kapur, eds. 2019. Securitisation in the Non-West. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. (Cited 12 times)
Papers Presented in Conferences
- Kapur, Saloni. 2023. “The Dangers of Decoloniality.” International Interdisciplinary Symposium on “From Colonial Modernity to Decolonisation: The British Empire and Beyond,” University of Auckland, online, September 15-16, 2023.
- Kapur, Saloni. 2023. “Decoloniality Theory Encounters Hindutva.” Paper presented at the 16th annual meeting of the European International Studies Association, Potsdam, Germany, September 5-9, 2023.
- Kapur, Saloni. 2023. “India, the Persian Gulf, and the Emergence of a Supercomplex.” Workshop on External Powers in the MENA Region, Lancaster University, online, January 2023.
- Kapur, Saloni. 2021. “India’s Concerns in Afghanistan and West Asia.” Roundtable on India-Iran Relations, Gateway House and Institute for Political and International Studies of Iran, online, September 2021.
- Kapur, Saloni. 2021. “Decentred Globalism and India’s Pivot towards the Arab Gulf.” Paper presented at the 45th annual meeting of the British International Studies Association, online, June 21-23, 2021.
- Kapur, Saloni. 2020. “The Pakistan-India Relationship.” Panel Discussion on “Pakistan’s Changing Foreign Policy: Challenges and Approaches,” King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies, online, December 7, 2020.
- Kapur, Saloni. 2017. “An Introduction to Securitisation in the Non-West.” Workshop on Securitisation in the Non-West, speaker and organiser. Lancaster University, Lancaster, United Kingdom, March 2017.
- Kapur, Saloni. 2015. “Emotions and the English School: A New Research Agenda.”
Paper presented at the 56th annual meeting of the International Studies Association, New Orleans, United States, February 21, 2015. http://web.isanet.org/Web/Conferences/New%20Orleans%202015/Archive/e0e5cac4-7e76-4018-b129-41737f1242d0.pdf. (Cited 2 times)