Dr Sneha Roy

Teaching

At Edinburgh, I taught undergraduate modules on Religion and Nationalism in the Contemporary World and Religion, Violence and Peacebuilding; and postgraduate modules on Religion and Nationalism: Theory and Performance and The Practice of Field-Work in the Study of Religion. At York St Johns, I am teaching Religion and Genocides (REL6035M) and Religion, Peace and Conflict (REL4020M).

Research

My research is broadly grounded in the intersections of religion, protracted conflicts, nationalism, and gender, tracing how moral and political identities are lived and negotiated within sites of continuing violence. In my work, I challenge and destabilise the normative understanding and experiences of the female religious subjects and examine their interventions at the institutional level, and within the intimate and affective dimensions of everyday life.

I am open to mentoring and supervising students whose interests and curiosities resonate with these subjects.

Publications and conferences

Fellowships and Awards

2025:                   British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship, UK (£282,000)

2025:                   PeaceRep Fellowship, UK (£15,000)

2024:                   Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities Fellowship, University of Edinburgh, UK (£10,000)

2024:                   Best Panel award at European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA) 2024 conference in Barcelona, Spain

2023:                   Honorary Fellow of Oxford Interfaith Forum, UK

2023:                   Rising Leaders Fellowship, UK

2022:                   Best paper presentation at conference on Migration, Ethnicity, Race and Diversity at Cardiff University's Centre for Law and Religion, UK

2021:                   Dean’s Award for Outstanding PhD thesis by UWTSD, UK (£2000)

2021:                   Young Leader’s Award by Hindu Council UK for best youth-led interfaith activity, UK

2020:                   International Student Scholarship for best paper presentation, UK

2020:                   Spalding Trust scholarship for PhD thesis writing, UK (£2000)

2019:                   Culham St Gabriel Trust scholarship for interfaith fieldwork studies, UK (£2000)

2018:                   Doctoral Fellowship for three years by Chin Kung Foundation to pursue PhD at UWTSD, Singapore (£105,000)

2016:                   Mindanao Peace Institute Fellowship, Philippines

2015:                   King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Fellowship for Dialogue, Saudi Arabia (£3500)

2015:                   Commonwealth Scholarship to pursue Masters at Durham University, UK (£32,000)

2014:                   Delhi University Gold Medal for highest scorer across university, India (£100)

2013:                   Highest scorer and all-rounder, University of Delhi, India (£50)

Selected Conference Presentations/Invited Talks

Nov 2025:           Glorisun Lecture Series, Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Oxford University, UK

Sept 2025:          Religion and Ecological Justice, Department of Theology and Religious Studies, Nottingham University, UK

Sept 2025:          Exploring the World Research Culture, National Postdoctoral Conference, British Academy, UK

June 2025:         Cohesive Societies, Resilient Futures, International Conference on Cohesive Societies, Singapore

June 2025:          Religion and Media, King’s College London, UK

Nov 2024:           Religion and Politics in South Asia, Centre for the Study of Religion and Politics, University of St Andrews, UK

Aug 2024:           Nature, Ecology, and Religious Responses to Climate Change, European Association for the Study of Religions, Gothenburg, Sweden

July 2024:           Doing and Undoing with Anthropology, European Association of Social Anthropologists, Barcelona, Spain

Sept 2023:          Sustainable Research and management, EURO HOpe Mini-Conference, Bath, UK

July 2023:           Religion and Transnational Boundaries, University of Laos, Vientiane, Laos

May 2023:          Panel on Interfaith Solidarity and the Youth, G20 Summit, New Delhi, India

May 2023:          International Conference on Gender and Ecology in Rural India, Indian Association for the Study of Population, New Delhi, India

Apr 2023:           Nature Human Interface in the Sundarbans, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India

Mar 2023:          Religion and Politics in Scotland, School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh, UK

Sept 2022:          Footprints and Futures: The Time of Anthropology, Association of Social Anthropologists, Durham University, UK

Some of my key publications are:

Upcoming:

Book monograph (Routledge) Buddhist nuns and nationalism in Myanmar (2026)

Book chapter (Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Religion and Violence) Anthropological Reflections on Religion and Violence (2025)

Book chapter (Handbook of Contemporary Buddhist Ethics) Buddhism and Transitional Justice in Myanmar (2026)

Article (Journal of Social Anthropology) An anthropological understanding of the sea, subalternity, and the Sundarbans (2025)

(Independent) Publications from/during Postdoc:

• Roy, S. (2024). Hindu Nationalism emerging from narcissism of minor differences in Indo‐ Bangladesh borderlands: A gendered narration. Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism.
• Roy, S. (2024). Understanding Hindutva ‘becomings’ and their ‘affect’ in Northeast India. Indigenous Religious Traditions, 2(2), 325-329.
• Roy, S. (2023). Democracy, Dissent, and Dialogue in Contemporary India. Journal of Dialogue Studies, 244.

(Independent) Publications from/during PhD:

• Roy, S. (2021). Buddhist nuns and civil activism in transitional Myanmar. In The Routledge Handbook of Religion, Gender and Society(pp. 88-102). Routledge.
• Roy, S. (2020). Victims or Agents? A Feminist Reading of Lived Experiences of Buddhist Nuns in Myanmar. In Research in the Social Scientific Study of Religion, Volume 31(pp. 453-469). Brill.
• Roy, S. (2020). The Buddhist Nuns and Dialogue in Wartime Myanmar: Understanding the 'Banality of Othering'. Journal of Dialogue Studies, 8.