Sugandh Gupta, Ph.D.
Office:B119 Turlington Hall
Phone:+1-352-294-7600
Email:sugandhgupta@ufl.edu
Mailing Address: :Department of Anthropology
University of Florida
P.O. Box 117305
Gainesville, FL 32611-7305
Education
- Ph.D. Anthropology, University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill, 2025
- M.A. Anthropology, University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill, 2018
- M.A. Psychology, University of Delhi, India, 2011
Research Interests
Anthropology and politics of mental health and well-being, Militarism and Mental Health, Opioid Use Disorder, De-addiction and Recovery, Addiction Medicine, Harm Reduction, Care and Kinship, State Bureaucracies, Ethnographic Methods and Writing, Psy-sciences, Psychological Anthropology, South Asia, Jammu & Kashmir, India
Personal Statement
I am a sociocultural medical anthropologist and psychologist whose research and teaching focus on culture and mental health, the anthropology of care, bureaucracy, psychiatry, addiction, and recovery studies in South Asia. My project, titled “Drugs, Dependency, and De-Addiction in Jammu City, Jammu and Kashmir, India,” is an ethnographic study of a government-sponsored psychiatric hospital that provides substance use treatment to injecting heroin users in Jammu. This hospital operates in a region affected by prolonged militarization and political conflict in nearby Kashmir. By amplifying the voices and experiences of Jammu residents, patients, clinicians, family members, and other stakeholders, I aim to integrate Jammu’s experiences into anthropological scholarship, highlighting how addiction and recovery, militarism and mental health, and harm and healing coexist amid political conflict and war. My upcoming projects include a multi-site investigation into the mental health challenges faced by communities in India’s borderlands, confronting the triple burden of military presence, illicit opioids, and narcoterrorism; and a socio-historiography examining the rise of addiction medicine in India.
Current and Prospective Students
For Undergrads:
Are you an undergrad interested in getting involved in research in medical anthropology? Send me an email to ask about research opportunities.
For Prospective Graduate Students
Are you a prospective grad student interested in applying to our Ph.D. program and wanting to work with me? I’d love to hear from you and learn more about your research interests! Please get in touch to find out if we might be a good fit. I will only be taking one to two students in a given application cycle.