Affiliated Faculty

<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">Nirvikar Singh is Distinguished Professor of Economics and holder of the Sarbjit Singh Aurora Chair in Sikh and Punjabi Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz. His career bridges mainstream economics — development, political economy, digital technology — with sustained scholarly engagement with Sikh history, scripture, and the Panjab, alongside decades of institutional building for Sikh and Panjabi Studies within the American research university.</p> <p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">Singh earned his B.Sc. and M.Sc. from the London School of Economics, where he received the Allyn Young Prize, Gonner Prize, and Ely Devons Prize, and his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. At UCSC, he has served as founding Director and current Co-Director of the Center for Analytical Finance, Director of the Santa Cruz Center for International Economics, Co-Director of the Center for Global, International and Regional Studies, Director of the South Asian Studies Initiative, and Special Advisor to the Chancellor. He held the Aurora Chair from 2010 to 2020 and currently holds the appointment again.</p> <p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">Singh has authored over 100 research papers and co-authored or co-edited six books, with a three-volume set on <strong><em>Economics, Religion and Public Policy</em></strong> forthcoming in 2026. His Sikh and Panjab-focused scholarship forms a distinctive strand within this body of work. <strong><em>Economic Transformation of a Developing Economy: The Experience of Punjab, India</em></strong> (Springer, 2016), co-edited with Lakhwinder Singh, examines Panjab's economic trajectory through agriculture, industry, and governance. <strong><em>The Other One Percent: Indians in America</em> </strong>(Oxford University Press, 2016), co-authored with Sanjoy Chakravorty and Devesh Kapur, provides the most comprehensive empirical portrait of the Indian-American community, including the Sikh diaspora's economic and social integration. He also co-edited two special volumes of the <strong><em>Journal of Punjab Studies</em></strong> on "The Legacy of 1984 and Contemporary Challenges for Punjab, India" with Jugdep S. Chima.</p> <p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">In the <em><strong>Sikh Research Journal</strong></em>, Singh has published "The Three Pillars of Sikhism: A Note on Origins" (2019), on the historical foundations of core Sikh principles; "The Challenge of Translating the Guru Granth Sahib" (2017), on the complexities of rendering Gurbani in English; and "Cosmopolitanism, Tradition and Identity: Framing the Sikh Experience in California" (2016), on how Sikh communities navigate preservation and adaptation in America. His "Markets, Morals and Motives: Economics and the Guru Granth Sahib" (<strong><em>Sikh Review</em></strong>, 2013) brings economic reasoning into dialogue with Sikh ethical thought.</p> <p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">Singh has spoken to law enforcement officers, attorneys, and community members about the history and presence of Sikhs in the United States, and has engaged with diaspora organizations including the Jakara Movement. In a 2024 interview with Notre Dame's Ansari Institute, he offered a wide-ranging account of Sikh history, ethics, and the diaspora's struggle for recognition. He moderated the 2014 panel "1984 — Beyond the Trauma" and has published on Panjab's environmental and agricultural policy challenges.</p> <p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">He currently leads "Sikhs in the 21st Century: Remembering the Past, Engaging the Future," a research initiative at UCSC's Humanities Institute, supported by the 5Rivers Foundation and the UCSC Humanities Division, producing academically rigorous multimedia content on Sikh institutional development, the effects of colonialism, and diaspora identity — actively involving scholars from Panjab and those working outside elite networks. Singh is also Editor-in-Chief of the <strong><em>Journal of Economics, Management and Religion</em></strong>, and a member of the American Economic Association, the Econometric Society, and the Indian Econometric Society.</p>