Moumita Sen

Moumita Sen is an Associate Professor of Cultural Studies at the University of Oslo, specializing in Indian Political Culture and Visual Studies. She leads major research projects including the ERC-funded 'Political Deification: Theorising from Asia' (2023–2028) and the RCN project 'Mythopolitics in South Asia' (2020–2024). Her work focuses on the intersection of aesthetics, religion, and politics, particularly in caste activism and visual culture. She holds a doctoral degree from the University of Oslo (2016), recognized with the Norwegian King’s Gold Medal for outstanding research in 2017. Her forthcoming monograph Mythopolitics in India: Caste, Religion, and Politics stems from her postdoctoral research.

Research interests include religious iconography, festival studies, digital religion, and the political dimensions of mythology. She co-edited Nine Nights of the Goddess: The Navaratri Festival in South Asia (2018) and is a founder of the research collective Theory from the Margins. Her recent work examines topics like Islamophobia in digital spaces and the reinterpretation of mythological figures like Mahishasur in contemporary movements.

Sen has held academic positions since 2012, including postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Oslo (2016–2020). Her education includes an M.Phil from the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta (2011), and an MA from Jawaharlal Nehru University (2009). She has published extensively on topics ranging from Durga Puja rituals to the political uses of deification in South Asia.

Awards include the 2017 King’s Gold Medal and recognition for her work on caste and religion. She collaborates internationally on projects addressing mythopolitics, Islamophobia, and the digital transformation of religious practices.