PhD student Aman Kumar has received the 2026 Fox International Fellowship to spend 10 months at Yale at the MacMillan Centre and its South Asia Centre.  

It was not a straightforward path for Aman to study at ANU Law School and now Yale. Aman was born in Bihar in India, and it is family history that laid the foundations of his research interests. His family is from Motihari, the place where Mahatma Gandhi took his first step towards struggle for India’s independence and where George Orwell was born. Bihar, on the other hand, was an early region affected by the indentured labour system introduced by the British to replace slavery in sugarcane fields in Mauritius and Fiji. 

“In fact, Fiji-Hindi, one of the national languages of Fiji, is a version of my mother tongue – Bhojpuri. Naturally then, my interest lies in the current condition of my state – Bihar. Upliftment of my people is what drives me,” Aman explains.  

During his LLM program at South Asian University, Aman was working on the Immunity of Heads of State from criminal prosecutions, a principle under international law.  

“My research led me to the prosecution of the last Mughal emperor of India – Bahadur Shah Zafar. I was also reading about the Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL) during that time. TWAIL helped me look critically at international law. I then decided to write my thesis on the illegality of the trial, and published part of my research. The responses to my research drove me to explore the trial more, which is what I am doing currently,” he says. 

Aman says his primary reason for choosing ANU was his supervisor Dr Ntina Tzouvala’s expertise in his research area.  He was also drawn to the ANU for its history of South Asia-centric work by Historian A L Basham, and Ranajit Guha and Partha Chatterjee of the subaltern studies group, and the collection of Menzies Library. However, his PhD at ANU would not have been possible without the ANU PhD Scholarship and HDR Fee Remission Merit Scholarship that ensured he’d be able to accept his ANU PhD offer.  

Discovering the Fox International Fellowship 

Only a few months after starting his PhD in 2023, Aman learned about the Fox International Fellowship in an email from the School of Law Associate Dean – HDR. This helped solidify his plans for his research saying, “after reading about the fellowship, I decided that I will apply in the final year of my degree, since I had plans to do archival research in India during my second year.” 

The Fox International Fellowship is an exchange program between Yale and 20 other universities in the world. Every year, only one PhD student from ANU gets selected for the Fellowship.  

“I feel fortunate that this year, the ANU internal selection committee nominated me as one of the applicants for the Fellowship,” he says. 

Yale is going to provide expertise and something else that ANU can’t offer. “My thesis focuses on India's colonisation by the British East India Company and colonialism is one the research areas Yale prioritises,” Aman explained.   

“I am looking forward to exploring Yale’s East India Company’s archives.” 

During his time at Yale, he will also interact with their faculty members particulalry Professor Lauren Benton, Professor Rohit De and Professor Aslı Ü. Bâli who have confirmed their support and guidance. “I intend to have meaningful discussions with them on the history of empire, history of South Asia, and history of international law, which correspond to their respective areas of expertise. Their works align with three different chapters of my thesis, and I intend to take their feedback on my drafts.” 

A shift in focus 

Aman's PhD experience here at ANU Law School has also highlighted how representation matters in different spaces. He's hoping to see an increase in Indian representation at ANU, especially in the PhD space.  

“The office space ensures that we have privacy during our work but can also walk around and have conversations with our colleagues. My cohort is very friendly, which helps in relieving PhD-related tension. Although I would be lying if I said that it doesn’t feel alienating at times. That feeling is because of a visible lack of Indians or even South Asians in our school. I believe we can improve on that front, especially when our top competitors from the country are benefiting from attracting Indian talent, both in PhD and in teaching,” he explained 

“I would love to see ANU return to ‘India’ as a research topic, especially the ANU School of Law. I understand that the government has identified Southeast Asia as its focus region, and that is being reflected in School of Law’s PhD admissions too. However, considering the relevance of QUAD (the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue between India, Australia, Japan and the US) and of the Indo-Pacific, I see a huge upside in collaborative and comparative research on India and Australia.” 

“I wish to thank my supervisor, Dr Ntina Tzouvala and Dr Priyasha Saxena (University of Leeds)  for writing letters of recommendation and chair of my panel, Dr Wanshu Cong for supporting my application. I am grateful to my good friends Sarouche Razi and Gidey Assefa who helped me in revising my application. I also wish to thank Dr Jelena Gligorijevic for informing us about the Fellowship. Craig Brankin from CLGP Administrative team and Shruti Vellat from the Graduate Research School team were immensely helpful throughout my application process,” he added. 

Congratulations on receiving the Fox International Fellowship, Aman. The ANU Law School is looking forward to seeing what you uncover at Yale.