Kanika Sharma

Dr. Kanika Sharma is a Senior Lecturer in Law at the School of Law, Gender and Media, SOAS University of London. She holds a PhD in Law from London and prior qualifications from Delhi and Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). Her interdisciplinary background includes journalism, political theory, and field research with UNICEF in Bihar.

Education:

• BA Hons (Delhi)
• MA (JNU)
• MPhil (JNU)
• PhD in Law (London)

Research Interests:

• Colonial legal history of South Asia
• Gender issues in law and society
• Law’s engagement with images, architecture, and performance
• Psychoanalytic and critical legal theory

Key Contributions: Her work on the Rukhmabai case (1886), colonial sexual consent, and Gandhi’s assassins’ trial has won the Indian Law Review Best Article Prize 2021. She explores web streaming in legal trials and the role of architecture in legal symbolism.

Academic Roles:

• Co-convenor of core modules on Asian/African legal systems
• Editorial board member of South Asia Research
• Advisory board member of Birkbeck Law Review
• Member of the USI-NAM British-Indian Military Heritage Partnership

Awards:

• Associate Fellowship of the Royal Historical Society
• Indian Law Review Best Article Prize 2021

PhD Supervision: Focuses on sexual consent, women’s rights, law and architecture, and colonial legal history. Current supervisees include scholars examining anti-sexual harassment mechanisms, family court emotions, and legal subjectivity.