Kiran Ahluwalia (she/her) grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and is a current MA student in Global Studies at UCSB. She received her bachelor's in International Studies from the American University in Washington, D.C. During her undergraduate years, she was able to study various subfields within International Relations: Peace and Conflict studies, Religious Studies, and Critical Race and Gender studies. This interdisciplinary coursework led to a senior capstone exploring ethno-religious nationalism in India and she hopes to continue research at the intersection of politics, religion, and ethnic identity in the subcontinent at UC Santa Barbara.