Dolly Kikon is a lecturer at the School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Melbourne, Australia. Her research focuses on the political economy of extractive resources, development initiatives, gender relations, customary law and human rights in Northeast India. Before coming to the University of Melbourne, she led an interdisciplinary research project at the Department of Anthropology, Stockholm University. Her work focused on the increasing trend of outmigration among upland societies in Northeast India. The project titled “The Indian Underbelly: Marginalisation, Migration and State Intervention in the Periphery,” examined the expansion and outcomes of developmental activities of the Indian state in areas associated with economic backwardness, subsistence agriculture and armed conflict. Prior to obtaining her doctoral degree in Anthropology from the Stanford University, Dr. Kikon worked as a human rights lawyer and a community organiser in India. Focusing on land rights among tribal communities in Northeast India, her legal advocacy works extensively dealt with constitutional provisions with regard to land and resource ownership, as well as autonomy arrangement for securing ethnic rights and guarantees.