School of Social and Political Science

Research interests

My doctoral research is an ethnographic study of the first name changing practice of women post-marriage in India. In this study, I am interested in understanding what could names and naming tell us about the underlying relationalities and power entanglements of a group, especially in the South Asian context. In following and observing the different rituals of first name-change of incoming brides among the Sindhi and Marathi communities, I take a look at marriage as a dynamic network of relations that on the one hand replicate gender power hierarchies, while on the other provide a board to change it. Names are central in my research to navigate what it means for women to be called a particular name in different networks of relations as well as to carry the responsibility of the name they live by. I use name narratives of women embedded in their life experiences as a means to talk about self-making, gender, ritual, marriage, kinship and intimacies. 

Working Title to the Thesis: To be Named in Marriage: An Anthropological exploration of first name-change practice of women post-marriage in India.

Work

Research Fellow at Forum on Contemporary Theory, Vadodara, India.(2017-2018).

Tutor at the University of Edinburgh. (2020- )

Funding

Graduate School of Social and Political Science International Award 2019 ( 3 years)

Graduate School of Social and Political Science Studentship 2019 (3 years)

Conferences and Presentations

Pathak, N. “Is there nothing in names? A study of the first name changing ritual of women post-marriage in west India”. 2020. Centre for South Asian Studies Work-in- Progress Workshop, University of Edinburgh.

Pathak, N. “Whispered into Being: The Lena-Deni Ritual in a Sindhi Wedding”. 2021. Centre for South Asian Studies Work-in- Progress Workshop, University of Edinburgh. 

Pathak, N. “The Namer: Making of Men in the First Name Change Practice of Women Post-Marriage in India”. September 2022. South Asia Anthropology Group at University of Edinburgh. Discussed by Dr Janet Carsten, University of Edinburgh.

Pathak, N. “On Being Named: Name- change Narratives of Women Post- Marriage”. 2022 Australian Anthropology Society [online]. Discussed by Dr Piers Kelly, University of New England.

Pathak, N. “Re-naming of a Sindhi Bride and a Making of a Prosperous Future”. September 2023. South Asia Anthropology Group at SOAS London. Discussed by Dr Shalini Grover, LSE.

Pathak, N. “Why Should I change my name? Contextualising Resistance in the First Name-change Practice of Women Post- Marriage in India”. October 2023. Annual Conference on South Asia, Wisconsin – Madison. 

Pathak, N. “What is in a Name? : An Anthropology of Names”. November 2023. Talk at the Social Anthropology Society, University of Edinburgh. 

Teaching

2021 Sociology 1A: The Sociological Imagination: Individuals and Society SCIL08004. (UG)

2022 South Asia in the World SAST08003 (UG)

2023 Ritual and Religion SCAN10023 (UG)