Nicolas Martin

Nicolas Martin is an Associate Professor of Modern Indology/South Asian Studies and Deputy Director of the Institute at the University of Zurich. He completed his BA and PhD at the London School of Economics (2009) and has held academic positions at LSE, University College London (Senior Research Fellow), and since 2016 at the University of Zurich.

• Education: BA and PhD in Anthropology from LSE

His research focuses on political anthropology, caste systems, and democratic institutions in South Asia. Key themes include modernization and state formation, electoral politics, and social inequality. His recent work examines caste reproduction, Dalit activism, and migration’s impact on power structures.

Publications span ethnographic analyses of debt bondage, electoral fraud, and criminal political economies, with a forthcoming book on caste and democracy in Punjab. He has secured multiple grants, including two SNSF projects and an ERC grant.

• Notable Awards:
  • SNSF Research Grants (2019–2023, 2024–2028)
  • ERC Starting Grant (2012–2014)
  • LSE Teaching Award (2011/2012)
  • Firth Prize (2009)

He supervises PhD students on topics like electoral politics, debt and micro-credit, and social mobilization in South India, and teaches courses on South Asian transformation, caste dynamics, and democratic processes.