معرفی
Rahul Rao serves as a Reader in International Political Thought at the University of St Andrews, a senior academic position equivalent to Professor. He is currently a NIAS Fellow (September 2025 - January 2026) researching the construction of a whale-oriented world order to challenge anthropocentric frameworks in political theory.
His research traverses International Relations, Political Theory, and interdisciplinary fields including Postcolonial Studies, Queer Theory, Gender Studies, Critical Race Theory, and Decolonial Studies. Rao critically examines how race, caste, gender, and sexuality intersect in global political structures, with particular attention to decolonial movements and posthumanist perspectives. His current whale-focused project draws from Indigenous cosmologies and queer/trans studies to reimagine political order beyond human exceptionalism.
Rao's scholarly trajectory demonstrates consistent engagement with marginalized perspectives in political thought. His books—including "Third World Protest" (2010) on Global South activism, "Out of Time" (2020) on queer temporalities in postcolonial contexts, and the forthcoming "The Psychic Lives of Statues" (2025) on monument politics—reveal an evolution toward more-than-human inquiries. This progression culminates in his current NIAS project, which uses whale agency to unsettle core assumptions of political theory through aquatic and Indigenous epistemologies.
