Staff Profile

Raksha Pande is a social geographer with research interests in postcolonial and feminist geographies, marriage and family studies, social research methodology, and critical university studies. She teaches courses in development and gender, globalisation and neoliberalism, feminist philosophy in human geography, and supervises graduate research projects.

She is the author of Learning to Love: Arranged marriages and the British Indian diaspora. Learning to Love featured on BBC Radio 4's flagship social science programme 'Thinking Allowed' in an episode titled 'Love and Romance'. Click here to listen to her interview with Laurie Taylor.

Together with Mark Stafford she is the creator of Arranging Love - a comic book for secondary school children. It can be read on its own or can be used in the classroom with worksheets for relationship education. Please email Raksha Pande if you would like free copies of the comic and worksheets for your school.

She has written dozens of articles and chapters in geography journals and anthologies. Her research has featured in The Conversation, The Page 99 test, Asian Voice, and Lansi-Guomi. She has been a guest speaker on BBC Radio 4’s Sunday programme and Positive Thinking. 

Raksha is an editorial board member of Gender Place and Culture and is book reviews editor for the journal Social and Cultural Geography. She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Research Interests

Raksha's research interests are focused on the interface of social, political and development geographies. At a conceptual level, her interest lies in exploring the intersections between postcolonial and feminist approaches within human geography. These theoretical concerns are grounded in empirical research in India and the UK.

Completed projects include:

Storying sexual relationships: the narratives and practices of British Pakistani Muslims. 

This Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funded project is aimed at exploring the different ways in which young British-Pakistani women and men understand and explore relationships through the stories they produce and consume.

Young People Nationalism and Postnationalism: Multicultural belonging in hyperdiverse neighbourhoods

This project aims to explore young people's everyday experiences of nationhood and living with diversity in a post-Brexit UK.This project is funded by a grant from the Newcastle Research Excellence Academy.

Love, marriage and belonging among the Indian diaspora

This project is the culmination of her doctoral research which explores the different contours of love,marriage and belonging among the Indian diaspora in Britain with a specific focus on arranged marriages. 

The Analogue University

This project is concerned with examining the changing nature of academia. It includes a writing collective interested in conceptualizing 'the data university' where individuals both desire and are controlled through the generation of proliferating data streams. It also examines the different strategies through which collective resistance to the data university can be operationalised.

Postgraduate Supervision

Current doctoral students:

Stuti Pradhan is studying Sikkimese women's differentiated citizenship.

Students who have completed their thesis under her supervision include:

2019 Dr Stefan Rzedzian explored the 'rights of nature' in Ecuador.

2020 Dr Alessandro Boussalam studied the emotional geographies of gay Muslims in Belgium.

2020 Dr Quan Gao researched the geographies of post-secularism in Shenzhen.

2023 Dr Matt Richardson studied the importance of Jewish rituals for queer identities in Britain.

BA

GEO2103 Globalisation, Culture and Development (Convenor)

GEO1010 Interconnected World

GEO2111 Doing Geographical Research: Theory and Practice

GEO3099 Dissertation

MA

GEO8016  Philosophies in Human Geography

PhD workshops

Thinking Theories or Making sense : A two-hour workshop on epistemology and 'the thesis'.

Doing International Fieldwork in Development Contexts : A two-day workshop covering the key epistemological and methodological paradigms related to successfully planning and conducting fieldwork in a new country/context.

Becoming a 21st century academic: A two-hour workshop on how to survive and thrive in the neoliberal university.

• Articles

  • Hopkins P, Pande R, Ali R, Chambers C, Phillips R. Working with community interviewers in social and cultural research. Area 2022, 54(3), 400-407.
  • Phillips R, Chambers C, Ali N, Pande R, Hopkins P. Mobilizing Pakistani heritage, approaching marriage. Ethnic and Racial Studies 2020, 43(16), 1-19.
  • Ali N, Phillips R, Chambers C, Narkowicz K, Hopkins P, Pande R. Halal dating: Changing relationship attitudes and experiences among young British Muslims. Sexualities 2020, 23(5-6), 775-792.
  • Finlay R, Nayak A, Benwell MC, Hopkins P, Pande R, and Richardson M. Race, place and young people in the age of Brexit. Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space 2019, 37(1), 17-23.
  • Burrell K, Hopkins P, Isakjee A, Lorne C, Nagel C, Finlay R, Nayak A, Benwell MC, Pande R, Richardson M, Botterill K, Rogaly B. Brexit, race and migration. Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space 2019, 37(1), 3-40.
  • Pande R, Pugh J, Megoran N. (aka The Analogue University) Correlation in the data university. ACME: An International Journal of Critical Geographies 2019, 18(6), 1184-1206.
  • Chambers C, Phillips R, Nafhesa A, Hopkins P, Pande R. 'Sexual misery' or 'happy British Muslims'?: Contemporary depictions of Muslim sexuality. Ethnicities 2018, 19(1), 66-94.
  • The Analogue University, Pande R, Pugh J. Control, resistance and 'the data university': towards a third wave critique. Antipode 2017.
  • Morrish L, with the, Analogue University Writing Collective. Academic identities in the managed university: Neoliberalism and resistance at Newcastle University, UK. Australian Universities' Review 2017, 59(2), 23-35.
  • Pande R. Becoming Modern: British-Indian discourses of arranged marriages. Social and Cultural Geography 2016, 17(3), 380-400.
  • Pande R. 'I arranged my own marriage': arranged marriages and post-colonial feminism. Gender, Place and Culture 2014, 22(2), 172-187.
  • Pande R. Geographies of Marriage and Migration: Arranged Marriages and South Asians in Britain. Geography Compass 2014, 8(2), 75-86.
  • Williams AJ, Jeffrey A, McConnell F, Megoran N, Askins K, Gill N, Nash C, Pande R. Interventions in teaching political geography: reflections on practice. Political Geography 2013, 34, 24-34.
  • Pande R, Jeffrey A, Megoran N, Young RG. Connecting lectures to current affairs: the “letters to newspapers” assignment. Journal of Geography in Higher Education 2013, 37(2), 220-229.

• Authored Books

  • Pande R. Learning to Love: Arranged marriages and the British Indian diaspora. New Brunswick, New Jersey, and London: Rutgers University Press, 2021.
  • Pande R, Stafford M. Arranging Love. Newcastle upon Tyne: Newcastle University, 2021.

• Book Chapters

  • Pande R. Wedded to Tradition? Continuity and Change in Arranged Marriage Practices among British-Indians. In: Berta, P, ed. Arranged Marriage: The Politics of Tradition, Resistance, and Change. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2023.
  • Pande R. Radical Geographies. In: Wilson HF; Darling J, ed. Research Ethics for Human Geography. London: SAGE Publications Ltd, 2020, pp.107-117.
  • Pande R. Race. In: The Newcastle Social Geographies Collective; Pain, R; Hopkins, P, ed. Social Geographies An Introduction. London: Rowman and Littlefield International, 2020, pp.133-142.
  • Richardson M, Pande R, Ridley G. Gender. In: The Newcastle Social Geographies Collective; Pain, R; Hopkins, P, ed. Social Geographies An Introduction. London: Rowman and Littlefield International, 2020, pp.162-172.
  • Pande R. Strategic Essentialism. In: Richardson D; Castree N; Goodchild, MF; Kobayashi A; Liu W, ed. International Encyclopedia of Geography. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2017.

• Edited Book

  • Hopkins P, Newcastle Social Geographies Collective, Pain R, Shaw R, Gao Q, Bonnett A, Jones C, Richardson M, Rzedzian S, Benwell MC, Lin W, McAreavey R, Stenning A, Blazek M, Pande R, Najib K, Finlay R, Nayak A, Ridley G, Mearns G, Bonner-Thompson C, McLaughlin J, Boussalem A, Iqbal N, Heslop J, Jarvis H, Burrows R, Bambra C, Copeland A, Tate S, Campbell E, Thompson M, James A, Raynor R, Cunningham N, Powells G, Herbert J, Hocknell S, ed. Social Geographies: An Introduction. London, UK: Rowman and Littlefield, 2021.

• Editorials

  • Hope J, Freeman C, Maclean K, Pande R, Sou G. Shifts to Global Development: is this a reframing of power, agency and progress?. Area 2022, 54(2), 154-158.
  • Pande R, Pugh J, Megoran N, The Analogue University. Calling all journal editors:Bury the metrics page!. Political geography 2019, 68, A3-A5.
  • Meer N, Nayak A, Pande R. Special Section Introduction: The Matter of Race. Sociological Research Online 2015, 20(3), 13.

• Exhibition

  • Pande R, Hartung G. Crossing Boundaries: Barriers Danced. 2010. Newcastle upon TYne: ‘Interventions: six collaborative projects between social scientists and designers’ , The Ex-Libris gallery.

• Note

  • Painter J, Pande R, Macleod G, Matthews P, Hastings A, Durose C, Bovaird T. Response to the Scottish Governments Community Empowerment and Renewal Bill . 2013.

• Online Publications

  • Pande R. Young British Indians are embracing arranged marriage – just not in the traditional sense. The Conversation Trust, 2021. Available at: https://theconversation.com/young-british-indians-are-embracing-arranged-marriage-just-not-in-the-traditional-sense-159511.
  • Pande R, Stafford M. Worksheets for Arranging Love. 2021.
  • Pande R. The Page 99 Test for Learning to Love. Blogspot, 2021. Available at: http://page99test.blogspot.com/2021/03/raksha-pandes-learning-to-love.html.

• Reports

  • Finlay R, Nayak A, Benwell M, Hopkins P, Pande R, Richardson M. Growing up in Sunderland: young people, politics and place. Newcastle upon Tyne: Newcastle University, 2020.
  • Layrad A, Painter P, Pande R, Ramsden H, Fyfe H. Localism, Narrative and myth. AHRC report http://dro.dur.ac.uk/11998/, 2013.
  • Painter J, Pande R. Reframing citizen relationships with the public sector in a time of austerity: Community empowerment in Scotland and England. AHRC report, 2012.

• Reviews

  • Pande R. Marriage migration in Asia: emerging minorities at the frontiers of nation states by SK Ishii [Book review]. Gender, Place and Culture 2017, 24(2), 301-302.
  • Painter J, Macleod G, Orton A, Dominelli L, Pande R. Connecting Localism to Community Empowerment. Systematic Review and critical synthesis for the AHRC 2011.
  • Pande R. Review of Gender and family among transnational professionals, edited by Ann Coles and Anne-Marie Fechter, New York and Oxford, Routledge, 2008. Gender, Place and Culture 2009, 16(1), 114-115.
  • Pande R. Imagining hybrid identities. The Geographical Journal 2007, 173(4), 393-394.