Shalini Nair is a Lecturer in Criminology and a member of the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research (SCCJR). Shalini was awarded the Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship (2025-2028) for her research on justice for marital rape survivors in India. She holds a PhD in Gender Studies from the University of Sussex (Pass without corrections) and an MSc in Development Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London (Distinction). Her PhD research, funded by the University of Sussex's School of Law, Politics, and Sociology scholarship, was awarded the Adam Weiler Doctoral Impact Award and the Graduate Women International Award. Her research explores abolitionist approaches to justice for sexual violence survivors in India, with a focus on various marginalised communities. As a Tutor at the University of Sussex, she has taught modules in Criminology, Sociology, Gender Studies, and International Development. Before starting her PhD, Shalini worked as a National journalist with leading Indian newspapers, including The Indian Express and The Times of India, for over fifteen years (2004-2019). The impact of her journalistic work, analysing social policy across union government ministries and its implications on the ground, has been recognised by prestigious national and international awards. These include the Kurt Schork Memorial Award in International Journalism hosted by the Thomson Reuters Foundation in London, the Ramnath Goenka Award for Excellence in Journalism, the Press Council of India's National Award for Excellence in Journalism (Rural Journalism and Development Reporting), RedInk Award for Excellence in Indian Journalism (Gender Equality), and UNFPA - Laadli Media Award for Gender Sensitivity. She has also been involved in transnational civil society initiatives in South Asia and is currently a Director on the board of Rape Crisis Scotland, having previously served on the board of Survivors’ Network, the Sussex County Rape Crisis Centre.

• Gender-based Violence 
• Structural Inequality 
• Abolition & Justice 
• Intersectionality Studies 
• Anti-Colonial/ Decolonial Approaches
• Critical Caste Studies
• Critical Disability Studies 
• Social Policy
• News Media 
• Civil Society & Feminist Movements 
• Global South

Research groups

• Sociology
• Criminology

List by: Type | Date

Prior publications

• Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship (2025-2028)
• Graduate Women International (GWI) Award 2022
• University of Sussex Adam Weiler Doctoral Impact Award 2022
• Funds for Women Graduates (FfWG) Grant 2021
• Feminist Studies Association Small Grants 2020-21
• The Annette Lawson Grant 2020
• The University of Sussex School of Law, Politics, & Sociology PhD Scholarship 2019
• Aga Khan Foundation International Scholarship 2012
• JN Tata Scholarship & Lady Meherbai D. Tata Scholarship 2012

PhD supervision requests are welcome in the research areas listed above, particularly for projects that engage critically with questions of power, inequality, and social justice.

Postgraduate

• Criminological Theory in Context
• Gender, Crime, and Criminal Justice

• Chevening South Asian Journalism Fellow (2016), University of Westminster, London. Awarded by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office.
• Associate Fellow, Higher Education Academy, United Kingdom. 
• Member, British Sociological Association.