Kavita Khory

A Mount Holyoke alum (class of 1984), Kavita Khory’s scholarship and teaching cover the fields of international relations and comparative politics. Informed by a variety of disciplinary perspectives, Khory’s work ranges from analyzing political violence in South Asia to tackling questions of political identity and citizenship in multicultural societies. She has written about nationalism and ethnic conflict in Pakistan, insurgency movements and regional security challenges in South Asia, and the domestic and foreign policy implications for Pakistan of the U.S. war in Afghanistan.

Khory’s current research explores transnational political mobilization among South Asian diaspora populations in North America and Europe.  Locating contemporary forms of migration from South Asia in broader historical and theoretical contexts, Khory’s work focuses on transnational forms of activism and political violence involving diaspora organizations with ties to India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan. She is especially interested in analyzing both historical antecedents and contemporary debates linking migration with security in the U.S. and countries of the European Union. Khory is the editor of Global Migration: Challenges in the 21st Century (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2012), which is based on the McCulloch Center conference on migration in March 2010.

At Mount Holyoke, Khory regularly teaches courses on world politics, international security, ethnic conflict, propaganda and war, South Asia, and migration. She has been involved in a number of curricular initiatives at Mount Holyoke, including serving as co-director of a project funded by the Hewlett Foundation for promoting the case method across the curriculum. As part of the New York Times Knowledge Network, Khory offered an online course in 2008 titled "War and Peace in South Asia: The Challenges to U.S. Policy." She is the recipient of a Pew Faculty Fellowship in International Affairs at the Kennedy School, Harvard University.

Khory has been involved in a number of curricular initiatives at Mount Holyoke, including serving as co-director of a project funded by the Hewlett Foundation for promotion of "Case Method Teaching Across the Curriculum." She served as the Acting Director of the McCulloch Center for Global Initiatives at Mount Holyoke in 2009-10.