Ajaymodi01 at 12:12, 7 March 2026

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{{short description|Naga Anthropologist}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox academic
| honorific_prefix = [[Professor]]
| name = Dolly Kikon
| image = Dolly Kikon in Guwahati.jpg
| birth_date = {{birth year and age|1975}}
| birth_place = [[Dimapur]]
| citizenship = Indian
| spouse = [[Sanjay Barbora]]
| alma_mater = [[Stanford University]], [[Hong Kong University of Science and Technology]], [[University of Delhi]]
| discipline = [[Anthropology]]
| sub_discipline = [[Development studies]]
| main_interests = [[Gender]], [[Anthropology of the State]], [[Citizenship]], Human Rights, [[Human migration|migration]], [[Resource conflicts]], [[Food Studies]]
| website = www.dollykikon.com
}}

'''Dolly Kikon''' is an Indigenous [[anthropologist]] and author from [[Nagaland]], India. She is a Professor at the Department of Anthropology, [[University of California, Santa Cruz]]. She was previously Associate Professor of Anthropology at the [[University of Melbourne]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://findanexpert.unimelb.edu.au/profile/774007-dolly-kikon|title = Dr Dolly Kikon}}</ref> and a senior research advisor at the Australia India Institute, engaging in research and policy initiatives between India and Australia.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|url=https://www.morungexpress.com/social-relations-are-based-respect-equality-and-partnerships-dolly-kikon|title=Social relations are based on respect, equality and partnerships: Dolly Kikon|last=Krocha|first=Vishü Rita|date=9 January 2020|work=The Morung Express|access-date=30 January 2020}}</ref> She serves on the Council of Advisors for The India Forum.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theindiaforum.in/council-advisors|title=The Council of Advisors|date=25 February 2019|website=The India Forum|language=en|access-date=1 February 2020}}</ref>

== Education ==
In 1997, Kikon received her B.A. (History Honours) from [[Miranda House]] College, [[University of Delhi]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=K.B |first=Pragati |date=6 November 2020 |title=Oppressive hierarchies in India are reiterated through everyday mundane experiences like food |url=https://www.thehindu.com/society/politics-on-my-plate-anthropologist-dolly-kikon-examines-the-politics-of-food/article33038386.ece |access-date=30 August 2024 |work=The Hindu |language=en-IN |issn=0971-751X}}</ref><ref name=":1" /> In 2001, she completed her LL.B from the Campus Law Center at the University of Delhi. She moved to [[Hong Kong University of Science and Technology]] for her M. Phil. Her dissertation was titled ''Compromised democracy and the politics of participation: a case study of the Naga people from Northeast India'' (2002–2004). The thesis examined the Naga people's participation in Indian electoral system, development initiatives by Indian security forces and the Indo-Naga ceasefire negotiations.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://repository.ust.hk/ir/Record/1783.1-5543|title=Compromised democracy and the politics of participation : a case study of the Naga people from Northeast India|last=Kikon|first=Dolly|year=2004|website=repository.ust.hk|language=English|access-date=13 February 2020}}</ref>

She obtained her doctoral degree in social and cultural anthropology from [[Stanford University]] in 2013.<ref name=":0" /> Titled, ''Disturbed Areas Act: Anxiety, Intimacy and the State in Northeast India'', her dissertation looked into the "state-making processes in contemporary India... and the many unheralded, though significant ways in which people in the foothills transgress and embrace the cultural and political roles ascribed to them by the modern state."<ref>{{Cite thesis|url=https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/10221163|title=Disturbed area acts anxiety, intimacy, and the state in Northeast India /|last=Kikon|first=Dolly|year=2013}}</ref> During the doctoral studies, she received the [[Wenner Gren Foundation|Wenner-Gren Foundation]]'s Dissertation Fieldwork Grant,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.wennergren.org/grantees/kikon-dolly-0|title=Kikon, Dolly {{!}} The Wenner-Gren Foundation|website=www.wennergren.org|access-date=1 February 2020}}</ref> the Stanford Interdisciplinary Graduate Fellowship, the Center for South Asia Community Service Fellowship (Stanford University) and the Mellon Foundation Dissertation Fellowship.

== Career ==
In 2024, Kikon joined UCSC's Anthropology department as a professor and senate faculty.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://apo.ucsc.edu/advancement/forms/docs/web-new-hires-rept.pdf | title=Forms – Academic Personnel }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Senate Faculty |url=https://anthro.ucsc.edu/faculty/index.php?uid=dkikon |access-date=30 August 2024 |website=anthro.ucsc.edu}}</ref> Since 2024, Kikon is also the director of UCSC's Center for South Asian Studies.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Faculty {{!}} CSAS |url=https://csas.ucsc.edu/faculty/ |access-date=30 August 2024 |website=csas.ucsc.edu}}</ref>

== Anthropology of food ==
Kikon's work on food navigates through landscapes of hills, valleys and foothills in Northeast India, and challenges the existing notions of sovereignty limited to territoriality. The layered articulation of food and the sensory perceptions attached to it challenge anthropological understanding of indigenous food. Therefore, significantly, her work revolves around indigenous food and fermentation as a technique for preservation.

Her article, ''Tasty Transgression: Food and Social Boundaries in the Foothills of Northeast India,'' questions the sensory perception of classifying the taste of food as belonging either to the hills or the plains. Through her fieldwork, she points out that this distinction falls apart at landscapes classified as foothills, the geography that situates itself between the two. Farming practices at the foothills transgress social structures and taboos attributes exclusively to societies either in the hills or the valleys.

In her article, ''Fermenting Modernity: Putting Akhuni on the Nation’s Table in India'', she points out that cultures of reciprocity and eating in Northeast India are integral in order to challenge existing notions of sovereignty as a political project limited to territoriality. Speaking through ''akhuni'' – fermented Naga soya beans – she reiterates that everyday practices of eating are entangled with social relationships and histories of sharing and loss.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Kikon|first=Dolly|date=3 April 2015|title=Fermenting Modernity: Putting Akhuni on the Nation's Table in India|journal=South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies|volume=38|issue=2|pages=320–335|doi=10.1080/00856401.2015.1031936|s2cid=143402129|issn=0085-6401}}</ref>

==Gender studies==

===Women's Reservation in Nagaland===
Kikon has been a vocal supporter for [[Women's Reservation in Nagaland]]. After the Supreme Court directive to implement reserved seats for Urban Local Bodies' election, protests erupted in Dimapur and Kohima which soon spread across the state. Kikon along with other women started a petition appealing to the Naga community and governments to 'recognise the importance of a gender inclusive political participation.'<ref name="theindianweekly.com.au">{{cite web |last=Laishram |first=Indira |date=24 May 2017 |title=Crusade against Patriarchy |url=https://www.theindianweekly.com.au/featured/crusade-against-patriarchy/ |archive-url= |archive-date= |access-date=30 August 2024 |website=The Indian Weekly}}</ref> She points out that the exclusion of women from powerful decision-making bodies formed under the customary law negates the notion that these institutions are pillars of justice."<ref name="theindianweekly.com.au"/> The iteration of Naga culture as pure and unique has come to be contested in the ongoing debate about women’s rights.<ref name="opendemocracy.net">{{Cite web|url=https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/nagaland-fight-for-women-quota/|title=Nagaland and the fight for a women's quota}}</ref> She also draws parallels between the Indian state and the customary law institutions for "excluding the Naga women from all spheres of representative political processes."<ref name="theindianweekly.com.au"/> She challenges the view that Naga women's assertions for gender justice is ‘anti-Naga’.<ref name="opendemocracy.net"/>

== Migration studies ==
Kikon was granted the ''Riksbankens Jubileumsfond'' Postdoctoral Fellowship at Stockholm University (2013–15) for "The Indian Underbelly: Marginalisation, Migration and State in the Periphery."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.socant.su.se/english/research/our-researchers/bengt-g-karlsson|title=Bengt G. Karlsson – Department of Social Anthropology|website=socant.su.se|access-date=1 February 2020}}</ref> This work traced the increasing outmigration from Northeast India to the rest of the country. Focusing on migration, it examined the expansion and outcomes of developmental activities of the Indian state in areas associated with economic backwardness, subsistence agriculture and armed conflict.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://in.boell.org/en/person/dolly-kikon|title=Dolly Kikon {{!}} Heinrich Böll Stiftung {{!}} India Office|website=Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung|date=19 March 2019 |language=en|access-date=1 February 2020}}</ref> Kikon and Karlsson define 'wayfinding' as a "voyage without a map or beaten paths or pathways to follow and with no clear destination or end station". In the process of wayfinding, young indigenous migrations struggle to make out what and where home is. As they move out of agricultural activities, they are constantly in search out new places and possibilities creating cultural fissures at various levels.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.socant.su.se/wayfinding/wayfinding-1.307626|title=WAYFINDING – Socialantropologiska institutionen|website=socant.su.se|access-date=1 February 2020}}</ref>

Part of the project, Kikon and [[Bengt G. Karlsson]] also collaborated with Andrzej Markiewicz on a photoethnography project titled, ''Wayfinding.''<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.socant.su.se/wayfinding|title=Wayfinding – Socialantropologiska institutionen|website=socant.su.se|access-date=1 February 2020}}</ref> The project was exhibited in Guwahati, Dimapur, Gangtok, Kathmandu, and Stockholm.

== Human rights advocacy ==
Kikon worked as a lawyer in the [[Supreme Court of India]] and the [[Gauhati High Court]] between 2001 and 2002. Her legal advocacy work dealt with Article 371 (A), a constitutional provision relating to customary rights, custodianship over land and resource ownership as well as indigenous rights.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://cordite.org.au/poetry/dalit-indigenous/seven-sisters-strong/|title=Satha Didi Bhuiini Takot {{!}} Seven Sisters Strong|date=1 October 2016|website=Cordite Poetry Review|language=en-US|access-date=1 February 2020}}</ref>

She has been part of several fact-finding teams over the years in Northeast India: ''And Quiet Flows the Kopili, Report of Human Rights Violation in the Karbi-Anglong District of Assam'' (2002); ''Death, Insurgency, Impunity: A Report on Extra-Judicial Killings in Tinsukia, Assam'' (2011). She has been associated with the [[Naga People's Movement for Human Rights]], Sisterhood Network (Dimapur), Prodigals' Home (Dimapur),<ref name=":0" /> The Turning Point (Mon district) and Action Aid (Northeast India). She continues to lend her voice towards the campaign to repeal the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (1958), an extra-constitutional regulation in India that gives access power to the Indian armed forces in Northeast India.

== Notable works ==

* 2004. ''Experiences of Naga Women in Armed Conflict: Narratives from a Militarized Society.'' Delhi: Women in Security, Conflict Management and Peace.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://wiscomp.org/publication_detail.php?id=44|title=Publications {{!}} WISCOMP|website=wiscomp.org|access-date=14 February 2020}}</ref>
* 2015. ''Life and Dignity: Women's Testimonies of Sexual Violence in Dimapur (Nagaland).'' Guwahati: North Eastern Social Research Centre.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Kikon|first1=Dolly|title=Life and Dignity: Women's Testimonies of Sexual Violence in Dimapur|last2=Chakravarty|first2=Uma|date=2015|publisher=North Eastern Social Research Centre|id={{ASIN|8192606252|country=in}}|language=English}}</ref>
* 2019. ''Living with Oil and Coal: Resource Politics and Militarization in Northeast India.'' Seattle: University of Washington Press.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://uwapress.uw.edu/book/9780295743950/living-with-oil-and-coal|title=Living with Oil and Coal|website=University of Washington Press|language=en-US|access-date=29 January 2020}}</ref>
*2019. (with Bengt G. Karlsson). ''Leaving the Land: Indigenous Migration and Affective Labour in India.'' New Delhi: Cambridge University Press.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/leaving-the-land/B242D899A9697438DC2DD37EA5D8E437|title=Leaving the Land: Indigenous Migration and Affective Labour in India|last1=Kikon|first1=Dolly|last2=Karlsson|first2=Bengt G.|date=May 2019|publisher=Cambridge Core|doi=10.1017/9781108637817|isbn=9781108494427|s2cid=164727184|language=en|access-date=29 January 2020}}</ref>
*2021. (with Duncan McDuie-Ra). ''Ceasefire City: Militarism, Capitalism, and Urbanism in Dimapur.'' New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
* 2023. (with Dixita Deka, Joel Rodrigues, --, [[Bengt G. Karlsson]], [[Sanjay Barbora]], and Meenal Tula). ''Seeds and Sovereignty: Eastern Himalayan Experiences''. Guwahati: North Eastern Social Research Centre.
* 2024. (co-edited with Joel Rodrigues). ''Food Journeys: Stories from the Heart.'' New Delhi: Zubaan.

==Recognition ==
* Wenner Gren fellowship
* Henry Hart Rice Visiting faculty, MacMillan Center for International and Areas Studies, [[Yale University]] (2023)

==Personal life==
Dolly Kikon belongs to a [[Lotha Naga]] family. Her ancestral village is [[Tsüngiki]] in [[Wokha District]]. Kikon's mother Mhalo Kikon attended the Golaghat Mission Girls High School in Assam, an educational institution set up by the American missionaries. Kikon's father Wopansao Kikon studied in Kohima and played football for various Naga teams during his youth. Kikon's maternal grandparents Mr. Nzio Hümtsoe and Ms. Oponlumi Hümtsoe were both Baptist pastors. Today, the Lotha Baptist mission in Wokha district recognizes them as visionaries who contributed, along with their colleagues, in establishing the Christian faith among the Lotha community in Tsungiki village and Wokha town. Kikon's paternal grandfather Mr. Luke Kikon was a medical compounder and her grandmother Ms. Oreno Kikon was a trader who set up one of the first shops managed and owned by a woman in Wokha town.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kikon |first1=Dolly |last2=Karlsson |first2=Bengt G. |title=Leaving the land: Indigenous Migration and Affective Labour in India |date=2019 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=New Delhi |isbn=9781108494427 |page=116}}</ref>

Kikon is married to [[Sanjay Barbora]], formerly at the [[Tata Institute of Social Sciences]],<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Laishram |first=Indira |date=2 March 2021 |title=Dolly Kikon's four continent life experience |url=https://www.theindiansun.com.au/2021/03/02/learning-curve-meet-anthropologist-writer-filmmaker-dolly-kikon/ |access-date=30 August 2024 |website=The Indian Sun}}</ref> and currently teaching in the sociology department of [[University of California, Santa Cruz]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Sanjay Barbora: UCSC Sociology faculty |url=https://sociology.ucsc.edu/about/directory-faculty.php?uid=sbarbora |access-date=30 August 2024 |website=sociology.ucsc.edu}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Kikon, Dolly}}
[[Category:1975 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:People from Dimapur]]
[[Category:Women from Nagaland]]
[[Category:Australian women anthropologists]]
[[Category:Indian women anthropologists]]
[[Category:21st-century Indian anthropologists]]
[[Category:Australian anthropologists]]
[[Category:Stanford University School of Humanities and Sciences alumni]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the University of Melbourne]]
[[Category:University of California, Santa Cruz faculty]]
[[Category:Stockholm University alumni]]
[[Category:Naga people]]
[[Category:Activists from Nagaland]]
[[Category:Miranda House alumni]]
[[Category:Women educators from Nagaland]]

Dolly Kikon - Revision history

Ajaymodi01 at 12:12, 7 March 2026