Specialization:
Peace and Conflict Studies
Indigenous/Post/Decolonial Studies
Critical Disability Studies
South/Asian Studies
Education:
MPhil (Thesis: Transgenderism in Manipur; Advisor: Brinda Bose), MA, and BA from the University of Delhi
Bio:
Maisnam Arnapal (any pronouns) is a PhD candidate in Feminist Studies with a designated emphasis in Global Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara and currently serving as the Graduate Representative, 2024-25. Maisnam belongs to the Indigenous Meitei community from Manipur located in the India-Myanmar-China borderlands.
Maisnam has been a research fellow at the Orfalea Center for Global & International Studies in two research clusters - “Global Gender & Sexualities” and “Global Futures: Uncertainty, Displacement, Security”. Additionally, they are also a public humanities fellow at the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center, UCSB.
Maisnam is also associated with the UCSB American Indian and Indigenous Collective, Institute for Research on Male Supremacism, Centre for Global Indigenous Futures at Macquarie University (Australia), and is one of the founding members of the Inter-Asian research cluster, "Transgressing Border and Queering Futurity."
Research:
Focusing on one of South Asia's longest-running conflicts, Maisnam studies how the decades-long militarization and insurgency in Manipur are in a dialectical relationship with gender/sexual regimes. In doing so, Maisnam’s research centers queer and trans politics of resistance and survival against the backdrop of the tension between India's post-colonial racial violence and the ethno nationalist aspirations of the Manipuris.
Maisnam's research is also shaped by their own lived experience of being a conflict survivor and their publicly engaged scholarship in collaboration with feminist and LGBTQ activists. Maisnam has also produced a documentary film, Manglaan: Queer Peacebuilding on transmen life-making in times of conflict set in Manipur.
Projects:
Manglaan: Queer Peacebuilding (Documentary film 2024).
Publications:
Arnapal, Maisnam and Wangam Somorjit. 2024. “Recasting Manipur: Between Election And Turmoil in India.” Global-e journal. April 18, 2024, Volume 15, Issue 11.
Arnapal, Maisnam and Debanuj DasGupta. 2023. “Between ‘Cheeni’ and ‘Nupi Maanbi’: Transgender Politics in Manipur at the Intersection of Nation and Indigeneity”. South Asian Popular Culture. 21:2, 223-234.
Arnapal, Maisnam. 2023. “Gender, Indigeneity, and History: The Battle of Kohima in Easterine Kire’s Mari” in Keeper of Stories: Critical Readings of Easterine Kire’s Novels edited by VeioPou. Tromsø: The Highlander Books. 147-157.
Arnapal, Maisnam. 2023. “The Motorcycle Diaries” in Queers in Quarantine, edited by Koyote Millar and Rahul Sen. Oslo: Mohini Books.
Arnapal, Maisnam, and Santa Khurai. 2023.“Hope and Despair: Unheard Stories from the Periphery.” UCSB Orfalea Center and AMANA, Manipur.
Arnapal, Maisnam. 2023. A three-part activist oral history interview series titled, “Indigenous Queer and Trans Activism in the Indo-Myanmar Borderlands.” UCSB Orfalea Center.
Arnapal, Maisnam. Co-editor. 2021. Consciously Speaking: A Short Terminology Book on Gender, Sex and Sexuality. Delhi: AvianWe.
Courses:
FEMST 20 Gender & Power
FEMST 30 Women, Development & Globalization
FEMST 60 Women of Colo