Devika Ranjan

Devika Ranjan is a first-generation Indian-American. Born in Nashik, Maharashtra and raised all over the United States, Devika explores stories of migration through political research, performance, and prose. Devika is a Fellow at the Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics, through which she works at the intersection of immigration and theatre. Building on her ethnographic research in the border regions of India-Pakistan and Israel-Palestine, as well as in refugee camps and clinics, Devika writes about displacement and belonging. 

She also draws from her own experiences—and the narratives of those around her— to create theatre. Most recently, Devika led a group of students to devise a performance about their experiences as American immigrants, entitled I Pledge Allegiance, which has been performed in Europe and across the United States. Devika holds a Bachelor’s degree in Foreign Service, with concentrations in Culture and Politics and Arabic, from Georgetown University (Washington DC, USA). She also has an MPhil in Sociology from the University of Cambridge (Cambridge, UK), where she studied refugee rights, surveillance, and bodily technology. This coming year, Devika will pursue an MA in Applied Theatre at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (London, UK) funded by the Marshall Scholarship.