Vandita Khanna

Vandita is a PhD in Law candidate at the Faculty of Law, where she studies the relationship between race, poverty, and human rights law, with a focus on the European Convention on Human Rights. Her doctoral research is funded by the Cambridge International Scholarship and the Evan Lewis-Thomas Law Studentship. She is interested in the theory and practice of human rights as well as equality and anti-discrimination law. At Cambridge, she supervises undergraduate law students (BA Tripos) in Human Rights Law at Murray Edwards, Newnham, Robinson, and Trinity Hall colleges. She is also the co-convenor of the Law and Race forum at the Faculty of Law.

Vandita serves as Assistant Editor at Indian Law Review and has previously been Senior Editor at Cambridge Law Review. Over the years, she has gained practical experience in the human rights sector in different capacities. She served as Project Manager at the Cambridge Pro Bono Project in 2021-22 and as Co-Chairperson at Oxford Pro Bono Publico in 2020-21. In 2019-20, she was a legal trainee at the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights (Berlin, Germany), a legal intern at the Max Planck Foundation for International Peace and the Rule of Law (Heidelberg, Germany), and a research fellow at the Centre for Public Interest Law (Jindal Global Law School, India). Prior to the PhD, Vandita read for the MPhil in Law (supervised by Dr Shreya Atrey) and the Bachelor of Civil Law at the University of Oxford. She completed her undergraduate legal education at Jindal Global Law School in 2018. 

Education 

• PhD in Law Candidate, University of Cambridge (since 2021)
• MPhil in Law, University of Oxford (2020 - 2021) 
• B.C.L. (Distinction), University of Oxford (2018 - 2019) 
• B.A., LL.B. (First Class Honours), O.P. Jindal Global University (2013 - 2018) 
  • Semester Exchange: Cornell Law School (Fall 2016) 

Scholarships and Awards

• University Diversity Fund (2021, Cambridge) (to co-convene the Law and Race speaker series)
• Cambridge International Scholarship and Evan Lewis-Thomas Law Studentship (since 2021, Cambridge Trust and Sidney Sussex College) 
• Cornelia Sorabji Scholarship to read for the MPhil in Law (2020, Oxford India Centre for Sustainable Development) 
• Graduate Research Scholarship (2020, Oxford Law Faculty) 
• Somerville College Alumni Scholarship (2020, Somerville College) 
• Bonavero Institute Student Fellowship at the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights, Berlin (2019, Bonavero Institute of Human Rights) 
• Wilma Crowther Fund (2019, Somerville College)
• Archibald Jackson Prize (2019, Somerville College) 
• Oxford-Indira Gandhi Graduate Scholarship to read for the B.C.L. (2018, Oxford India Centre for Sustainable Development) 
• Gold Medal for academic performance in the B.A., LL.B. programme (2018, O.P. Jindal Global University)
• CALI Excellence for the Future Award (2017, Cornell Law School) 
• First Position on the Dean's List for Academic Excellence (2014; 2015; 2016; 2017; 2018, O.P. Jindal Global University)