Prerna Dhoop

Education

B.B.A.LL.B (KIIT University School of Law) – 2013
LL.M (Duke University School of Law) – 2014

Profile

Prerna Dhoop worked as an Assistant Professor of Law at the National University of Legal Studies and Research (NALSAR), Hyderabad-Telangana, India from 2016 to 2019 where she taught public law courses such as Legal Methods; Law and Poverty; Administrative Law; Comparative Public Law; Law and Justice in a Globalizing World; and LGBTQI+ Rights Impact Litigation. In 2019, she was awarded NALSAR’s Excellence in Research Award for outstanding publications during the academic year 2018-19.

She has research and writing experience in the US as well as India. At Duke Law School, she was a participant at the International Human Rights Clinic which assisted the United Nations in developing basic principles on the right to an effective remedy for victims of human trafficking, especially women and children. She also worked as a Research Assistant with Prof. Adrienne Davis at Duke. Later, she worked at the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), Washington DC., as a Policy Clerk during May- July 2014.

After completion of the policy clerkship at the non-profit organization, she returned to India in order to pursue a career in legal academics and research. In 2015, she worked as a Research Assistant at the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences (WBNUJS) Kolkata, under Sir Justice Asutosh Mookerjee Chair on Tradition, Law and Social Transformation in Bengal. Whilst a student at KIIT Law School in 2009, she along with her two batch-mates had raised the issue of the Right to Self-Identification for the Indian transgender community before the Chief Election Commissioner of India. Their concerted efforts resulted in the Government of India’s official decision of assigning a distinct gender identity to the one million transgender population, in the Voter Identity cards.

Research work

Comparative Constitutional Law
Legal Theory
International Human Rights Law

Publications

Journal articles

• Remaking the Indian Military for Women- Beyond the Babita Puniya Judgment, Economic & Political Weekly, 16 May 2020 [commentary]
• Of Ageing and Dignity, Economic & Political Weekly, 23 Mar 2019 [postscript]
• A Bus Ride in Kolkata, Economic & Political Weekly, 29 Dec 2018 [postscript]
• A Norwegian Sojourn, Economic & Political Weekly, 28 Jan 2017 [postscript]
• (with Faizan Mustafa), “Rule of Law in Bastar”, Journal of the National Law Institute University Bhopal, ILR (VIII) 2016, pp. 1-58 (ISSN 2229-7960)

Book chapters

• Prerna Dhoop et al., “Socio-Cultural Dimensions of Natural Resources Law”, in P. Ishwara Bhat (ed.), Natural Resources Law: Concepts and Approaches (Eastern Book Company, 2016), pp. 41-74.

Popular media

• Prerna Dhoop & Vandana Dhoop, “Dharma’s Social Messaging”, Deccan Herald, Aug. 21, 2023
• Prerna Dhoop & Vandana Dhoop, Another Hole in India’s Data Tapestry, Deccan Herald, 13 July 2023 [op-ed]
• Prerna Dhoop, Litigation is more than courtroom victories, Deccan Herald, 21 June 2023 [op-ed]
• (with Vandana Dhoop), Marriage matters for same sex couples, Deccan Herald, 20 May 2023 [op-ed]
• (with Vandana Dhoop), Let’s Talk About Sex Education and The Great Indian Story, Feminism in India, 18 May 2023 [op-ed]
• (with Vandana Dhoop), UGC’s lazy copy-paste guidelines on sexual harassment won’t do, Deccan Herald, 10 Mar 2023 [op-ed]
• Reimagining Neoliberalism: Blog Symposium on ‘From Free to Fair Markets’ #2, Law School Policy Review & Kautilya Society, 12 Dec 2022 [book review]
• (with Vandana Dhoop), The (Gender) Role of a Professor, The Wire, 4 Sept 2022 [op-ed]
• (with Vandana Dhoop) How Did West Bengal Perform in the ‘Firecracker Ban Test’ Amid COVID-19?, EPW Engage, 26 Feb 2022
• (with Vandana Dhoop), New Avatar of Gender Based Violence against Muslim Women, Deccan Herald, 21 Jan 2022 [op-ed]
• (with Vandana Dhoop), Admitting women is just the first step. Is NDA really ready for female cadets?, Scroll, 11 Jan 2022 [op-ed]
• (with Vandana Dhoop), Centre ‘Delighted to Induct Women in NDA- But What Took it So Long to Allow, The Quint, 8 Sept 2021 [op-ed]
• (with Vandana Dhoop), Judges Decide for Spouses: Stay Back Don’t Leave, The Leaflet, 1 Aug 2021 [op-ed]
• (with Vandana Dhoop), Women Politicians Face Sexism and Misogynism in the ‘Boys’ Club, The Leaflet, 7 May 2021 [op-ed]
• (with Vandana Dhoop), What Makes Bengali Culture Unique: Unity in Diversity, The Leaflet, 16 Apr 2021 [op-ed]
• (with Vandana Dhoop), Are Indian students losing out on past history as textbooks are being changed?, The Leaflet, 10 Apr 2021 [op-ed]
• (with Vandana Dhoop), Chanakya had a vital recommendation for rulers on handling citizens’ unrest. Modi is ignoring it, Scroll, 29 Mar 2021 [op-ed]
• (with Vandana Dhoop), Growing Women’s Activism in India, Deccan Herald, 1 Mar 2021 [op-ed]
• (with Vandana Dhoop), India’s Farmers’ Movement: Why We Protest and What It Truly Means, The Quint, 21 Feb 2021 [op-ed]
• (with Vandana Dhoop), A Curious Case of Border Survey, Deccan Herald, 24 Jan 2021 [op-ed]
• (with Vandana Dhoop), An Ongoing Struggle For Women’s Freedoms, LiveLaw, 17 Jan 2021 [op-ed]
• (with Vandana Dhoop), Why India’s Homemakers Should Receive A ‘Notional Income’, The Quint, 15 Jan 2021 [op-ed]
• (with Vandana Dhoop), Raising the ‘Labor Question’ in a Deliberative Democracy, EPW Engage, 26 Dec 2020
• (with Vandana Dhoop), Equality For One or For All, LiveLaw, 13 Dec 2020 [op-ed]
• (with Vandana Dhoop), How the US managed to stop public spitting: and what India could learn from this, Scroll, 1 Dec 2020 [op-ed]
• (with Vandana Dhoop), Rule of Law in India: A Distant Dream, Deccan Herald, 16 Nov 2020 [op-ed]
• (with Vandana Dhoop), ‘Unrapeable’ Female Bodies, LiveLaw, 13 Nov 2020 [op-ed]
• (with Vandana Dhoop), The Crumbling Rule of Law in India, LiveLaw, 20 Oct 2020 [op-ed]
• (with Vandana Dhoop), With new NGO curbs, government signals it won’t let anyone demand that it protect rights of Indians, Scroll, 1 Oct 2020 [op-ed]
• (with Vandana Dhoop), How Judges Judge, LiveLaw, 1 Sept 2020 [op-ed]
• (with Vandana Dhoop), Examining the Right to Self-Perceived Gender Identity, Livemint, 1 Aug 2020 [op-ed]
• (with Vandana Dhoop), On Permanent Commission for Women Officers, the Army Continues to Drag Its Feet, The Wire, 9 Jul 2020 [op-ed]
• Citizenship (Amendment) Act: Enforcement is Fraught with Legal Hurdles, EPW Engage, 25 Jan 2020 [article]
• No Room for Breastfeeding Mothers in India, EPW Engage, 12 Oct 2019 [article]
• South Korea’s ‘Escape the Corset’ Breaks Away from the Patriarchal ‘Ordering’ of Beauty, EPW Engage, 29 Mar 2019 [article]
• (with Faizan Mustafa), Bill of Wrongs, The Indian Express, 27 Dec 2018 [op-ed]
• What the Women’s Movement Today Can Learn From 19th Century Social Reformers, The Wire, 29 Oct 2018 [op-ed]
• The Politics of Arranged Marriages in 21st Century India, The Wire, 16 Oct 2018 [op-ed]
• Confronting Sadhguru’s Problematic Idea of ‘Truth’, The Wire, 12 Oct 2018 [op-ed]