Zainab Zainab

Zainab is a Ph.D. student in the Department of History at Yale University. Her research interests lie at the intersections of ecology, science, and society in early modern and colonial South Asia, with a particular focus on Kashmir, one of the world’s most dynamic contact zones shaped by rivers, lakes, and wetlands. She explores the hydro-social histories that unfold along the water webs of the region.

Her work explores how water has structured distinctive regimes of knowledge, labor, and power, and how it embodies complex socio-political transformations and cultural imaginations in the region. A central focus of her research is the Hanji, the historical water-dwelling caste tethered to the waterscapes of Kashmir to this day. Through the everyday practices of the Hanji, from bird breeding and avian medicine to lake management and water architecture, she examines how ecological knowledge systems took shape across generations. Her broader project situates these practices within the entanglements of ecology, caste-based labor, and empire that underpinned the biopolitical foundations of modern science.

She holds an M.Phil. and M.A. in History from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and a B.A. in History from Miranda House, University of Delhi.

Keywords: hydro-social history; caste and environment; embodied knowledge systems; Kashmir; South Asia