devika ranjan

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devika.rnjn [at] gmail [dot] com

Devika Ranjan is a writer, ethnographer, theater-maker, and educator who tells stories about migration and technology.

Devika infuses joy and justice in community-based work, using performance to cultivate communities of care. She specializes in devised immersive performance and has facilitated workshops with refugees and migrants internationally. Her work has been commended by the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle, for critical storytelling about immigrants worldwide.  

Devika teaches at the intersection of migration, performance studies, and cross-cultural practice. As Associate Director of Albany Park Theater Project, Devika worked with immigrant and first-generation teens to create ethnographic immersive theater about community issues like family separation, labor rights, and deportation. She has designed and taught original courses for the Theater and Performance Studies Department at Georgetown University; she has also been an invited lecturer at the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama, King’s College London, Syracuse University, Northeastern Illinois University, and Illinois State University.

Devika was an Inaugural Fellow at the Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics from 2017-2019. Previously, she has been a Global Cultural Fellow at the Institute for International Cultural Relations, University of Edinburgh, and a Projects for Peace Fellow with the Davis Foundation. She is a 2021 3Arts Make-A-Wave Grantee.

Devika is currently studying the performance of “data doubles” at the Performance Studies PhD at Northwestern University. As a Marshall Scholar alumna, Devika holds a distinction from the University of Cambridge for her MPhil research on the electronic tagging of asylum-seekers, and an MA in Applied Theatre from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. Devika also has a degree in Foreign Service, with concentrations in Culture and Politics and Arabic, from Georgetown University. Born in India and raised all over the United States, she is currently based in Chicago.