PhD Candidate, Integrative Conservation & Anthropology I am a Ph.D. candidate in Integrative Conservation and Anthropology at the University of Georgia. I am also a National Geographic Explorer and an External Scholar at the Wildlife Institute of India. I am also the Founder of the Wolf Conservation Initiative, which advances research and conservation of wolves and grassland ecosystems across South Asia. My dissertation research examines how conservation interventions reconfigure relations among humans, nonhuman species, and landscapes in central India. Drawing on multispecies ethnography, political ecology, caste, and the anthropology of science and technology, my dissertation explores how conservation landscapes are imagined, enacted, and contested, with a particular focus on how large carnivore reintroductions intersect with conservation science, caste, and state-led environmental governance to reshape livelihoods, ecological knowledge, and more-than-human worlds in and around the Veerangana Durgavati Tiger Reserve. Through long-term, multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork with conservation scientists, Forest Department officials, local communities, and the movements of wolves and tigers themselves, I trace the circulation of ecological data, behavioral science, and conservation expertise across institutions and everyday life. My research asks how species politics, conservation technologies, and environmental expertise become modes of governance that configure relations of care, authority, and difference across species, how ecological futures are assembled through these encounters, and how marginalized human and nonhuman lives negotiate, inhabit, and rework the changing politics of coexistence, opening broader questions about justice, hierarchy, and the making of conservation futures. Of note: Student Board Member, Anthropology and Environment Society, American Anthropological Association (2025-) Secretary, Social Science Working Group, Society for Conservation Biology (2025) President, Anthropology Graduate Student Organization, University of Georgia (2022-23) Research Research Areas: Cultural Anthropology Research Interests: environmental anthropology, caste and conservation governance, ethical limits of wildlife protection, multispecies justice in South Asia, multi-sited ethnography, landscape ecology, rewilding. Selected Publications Selected Publications: Academic Publications: 1. Dietsch, A. M., Selinske, M.J., van Eeden, L. M., Blount-Hill, K.-L., Hauptfeld, R. S.,Banerjee, S., Brittain, S., Gelves-Gómez, F., Kaushik, A.,Fischer, P. M., Uddin, M. K., & Wallen, K. E. (2025). Conservation and the social sciences revisited. Conservation Biology, 39, e14462. https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.14462 2. Thomas-Walters, L.,Gelves-Gomez, F., Brittain, S., van Eeden, L. M., Sky, N.H., Kaushik, A., Kemink, K., Manzano-Fischer, P.,Plotsky, K., & Selinske, M. (2025). Essential skills for the training of conservation social scientists. Conservation Biology, 39, e14456. https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.14456 Masters Research: Kaushik, A. 2016. “Habitat-Use Interactions between Kiang (Equus kiang) & Changpas (Nomadic Pastoral Community) in Tsokar basin, Ladakh." Unpublished MA Thesis, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar University Delhi, India. Reports: 1. Wildlife Institute of India, 2022. Integrated Landscape Management Plan for Greater Panna Landscape, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. https://wii.gov.in/images/images/documents/publications/rr_2022_integrated_landscape_management_plan.pdf Popular articles/Blogs: Kaushik, A. 2024. “Alice In Chains”: Ground Staff Heroes, Conservation Realities, And Reflecting On William Cronon’s Insights. Current Conservation. https://www.currentconservation.org/alice-in-chains-ground-staff-heroes-conservation-realities-and-reflecting-on-william-cronons-insights/ Kaushik, A. 2024. Tigers, Animality, and Dignity: A Journey Through the Central Indian Landscape. Engagement – A blog published by the Anthropology and Environment Society, American Anthropological Association https://aesengagement.wordpress.com/2024/01/20/tigers-animality-and-dignity-a-journey-through-the-central-indian-landscape/ Kaushik, A. (2017). Situating Nilgai in Delhi. CUES Blogs, Centre for Urban Ecology & Sustainability, Ambedkar University Delhi. https://cuesonline.org/2017/08/11/situating-nilgai-in-delhi/ Grants Grants: 2025 1st Rufford Small Grant, Rufford Foundation 2025 Wenner-Gren Dissertation Fieldwork Grant 2024 National Geographic Society Grant 2024 Robert E. Rhoades Pre-Dissertation Travel Award, UGA Department of Anthropology 2024 Communication of Research and Scholarship, UGA Graduate School 2024 Integrative Conservation Mini-Grant, UGA Centre for Integrative Conservation Research 2023 Arts Collaborative Grant, UGA Arts Collaborative 2023 Graduate Research Award, UGA Willson Center for Humanities and Arts 2022 Communication of Research and Scholarship, UGA Graduate School 2015-16 Dr. B.R. Ambedkar University Delhi Merit Scholarships Education Education: M.A., School of Human Ecology, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar University Delhi 2016 B.Com.(Honors), Deen Dayal Upadhyaya College, University of Delhi 2012