Neelam Raina

Dr. Neelam Raina is an Associate Professor and Director of Research at Middlesex University, London. She holds a PhD in Design and Development from De Montfort University, and has over two decades of research in post-conflict reconstruction, gender inclusion in crisis responses, and valorizing marginalized knowledge systems. Her work bridges creative industries with global challenges through arts-based interventions in South Asia. As Director of the APPG Secretariat for Afghan Women and Girls, she advocates for women's rights in conflict zones.

Teaching roles include doctoral supervision, undergraduate design studies, and community-based training in textile crafts and business skills for women-led enterprises. Her research leadership includes UKRI-GCRF's Conflict & Security portfolio (2018-2021) and co-investigator roles in the LSE's Gender, Justice and Security Hub. She has provided evidence to UK parliamentary committees on Afghanistan withdrawal and asylum processes, influencing policy decisions.

Raina's research outputs span 1980s Kashmir politics to contemporary analyses of craft economies' role in peacebuilding. Her recent works include co-editing Creative Economies of Culture in South Asia (2024) and contributing to De-/Anti-/Post-Colonial Feminisms (2023). She chairs international conferences on textile cultures and serves on the National Centre for Academic and Cultural Exchange's Sounding Board.

Her work emphasizes connecting grassroots creative labor to macroeconomic frameworks, challenging neoliberal and colonial narratives through ethnographic approaches. Current projects explore decolonial ethics in research and the commercialization pathways for marginalized cultural practices.