Admitted in 2006. Nalika received her B.A in Anthropology and the Visual Arts from Occidental College in 2004. She received a Richter International Fellowship in 2003 to conduct fieldwork in London to study the British-Asian Underground music subculture in London. In 2005, Nalika was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to conduct research in India studying the socio-cultural issues surrounding the outsourcing of call center work to India and its effects upon the lives of young Indian workers. During this year, Nalika became interested in how this virtual work enables young Indian workers to cultivate certain kinds of global cosmopolitan identities and middle-class consumer desires. Since joining UCI, Nalika has also done pre-dissertation research in Sri Lanka studying the adoption of information and communication technology by its rural communities. Her current dissertation research in Sri Lanka examines how Buddhist conceptions of "doing good" influence philanthropy and social work in the island. She is especially interested in how Buddhist philanthropists become involved through their social work in the project of nation making in the aftermath of disaster and crisis.