Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Dr. Russell West-Pavlov and Jochen von Bernstorff

Ronica Vungmuankim (she/her) is a PhD candidate at the Faculty of Humanities, Interdisciplinary Centre for Global South Studies, University of Tübingen. Vungmuankim holds a Master’s degree in Criminology and Justice from the School of Social Work, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai and a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and Psychology from University of Delhi. She is engaged as Junior Scientific Researcher under the PhD Programme  Collocations: Constructing Interknowledges, Negotiating Proximities.

In addition to her academic training, she is equipped with skills in teaching, research, project management, group work and case work owing to her diverse work experiences and training in community-based organizations, human rights organisation and teaching in the University. Vungmuankim comes from the Zo/Zou tribe, an Indigenous tribe of the Chin-Kuki-Mizo ethnic group located in the Indian State of Manipur. She is interested in bringing her unique experiences, training and social location in enriching research, university and academic spaces. 

For her PhD project, Vungmuankim is interested in exploring legal pluralism in the context of Indigenous People. She will be studying legal orders that exists around land where she explores Indigenous law vis-à-vis Statutory law and will be engaged with the Zo people spread along the frontiers of India and Myanmar and other parts of South Asia. Through her research, she aims to understand the processes by which legitimacy and “non-legitimacy” are constructed, how legitimacy is defined in Indigenous legal orders and the limitations of international law in safeguarding land and identity of Indigenous People.  Through this research, Vungmuankim will explore the working of proximity in shaping and influencing legal orders and norms in the context of Indigenous communities of India experiencing waves of assimilation and integration with caste societies under the aegis of the post-colonial Indian State. 
Above all, her research aims to posit Indigenous law as legitimate legal order which argues differently from western Positive law based on codification, empiricism and scientific rationality. Her work aims to define legal orders of Indigenous People based on principles of pluriversal existence, community living and stewardship and highlight how they hold potential to address the global crisis and stress on the need to move away from fixation with a Universal order which puts extractivism and hierarchy at the forefront. 
 
Her work will incorporate methodologies that are respectful to the context of study, a decolonial approach to ethnography, engaging with the community, lived traditions and customs, oral and written text.