Shanti Parikh

Shanti Parikh is a Professor of Sociocultural Anthropology and Chair of the Department of African and African-American Studies at Washington University in St. Louis. She holds joint appointments in African and African American Studies and courtesy appointments in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, and Urban Studies and Policy. Her research examines intersections of race, gender, sexuality, and capitalism, with a focus on Uganda and the HIV/AIDS epidemic's sociocultural impacts. She has authored books like Regulating Romance (2015) and The Secret: Love, Marriage, and HIV Risk (2009), exploring themes of regulation, intimacy, and public health interventions.

Parikh’s academic background includes a PhD from Yale University. Her work integrates ethnographic and historical methods to analyze global processes shaping local dynamics, such as state interventions and mobility patterns. She has led research on black masculinity along the TransAfrica Highway and commercial sex in HIV hotspots. Courses are cross-listed in International and Area Studies (IAS) and American Cultural Studies (AMCS).

Her research trends emphasize HIV/AIDS in Uganda, gendered inequalities, and the interplay of law, culture, and health. Articles address topics like marital HIV risk, age of consent laws, and infidelity. Parikh previously directed the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program and serves as a Faculty Fellow in T.H. Eliot Residential College. Her ongoing projects include studies on infidelity and HIV transmission, and the social history of sexuality in post-colonial Uganda.