Ms Vandita Khanna

Vandita is a PhD in Law candidate at the Faculty of Law, where she studies the relationship between race, poverty, and equality 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. Alongside the PhD, she is currently co-editing a collection (with Kirsty Hughes) on race, racism and European human rights law (under contract with Hart Publishing).

At Cambridge, Vandita supervised undergraduate law students (BA Tripos) in Human Rights Law and co-convened the Law and Race Speaker Series at the Faculty of Law. 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. She is currently Case Commentary Editor at the European Human Rights Law Review and Associate Editor at the Indian Law Review and was previously Senior Editor at the Cambridge Law Review. Prior to the PhD, Vandita read for the MPhil in Law 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)
  • Visiting PhD Fellowship: The Hertie School, Centre for Fundamental Rights, Berlin (09 - 12/2023) 
• 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

• 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) 
• 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)