Nikitha Aithal
PhD Candidate in Political Science
School of History, Philosophy, Political Science & International Relations
Qualifications
MSc International Business, University of Leeds (U.K), 2016
BA (Joint Honours) International Relations and Spanish, University of Leeds (U.K.), 2015
Profile
Prior to moving to Wellington to pursue her doctoral studies, Nikitha lived in London (U.K) where she worked in financial services full-time and as a freelance Spanish-English translator. Nikitha completed her BA (Joint Honours) and MSc degrees at the University of Leeds (U.K) where she was elected to the committee of the University of Leeds Model United Nations Society and was a mentor for the International Politics module.
She credits the COVID-19 pandemic for giving her the realisation and courage to return to her interests in the field of political sciences, specifically citizenship studies and human rights. For Nikitha, the case of Shamima Begum losing her British citizenship sparked the curiosity to understand what is citizenship, what are its expectations, responsibilities, and benefits, and how could one stop being a citizen.
Nikitha’s PhD research focuses on the impact of citizenship revocation on the status of citizenship as membership, and vice versa, in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. Through careful reading of Hansard parliamentary debates surrounding revocation legislation, this research uses thematic analysis to investigate how politicians conceptualised citizenship as membership through citizenship revocation, and how these conceptualisations have evolved over the full period of analysis, which is 1946-2022. Using this specific focus of citizenship as membership, the overall goal of the thesis is to contribute to a more holistic understanding of citizenship in the twenty-first century, emphasising the political expectations of citizenship, as well as the precarity of citizenship, and its concomitant access to fundamental human rights and protections, in the face of increasing global conflicts and migration.
Supervisors
Associate Professor
School of History, Philosophy, Political Science and International Relations
Senior Lecturer
School of History, Philosophy, Political Science and International Relations