Rithika Kumar is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Rice University. She was previously a Postdoctoral Fellow at Kellogg Institute for International Studies at University of Notre Dame and received her PhD in political science from University of Pennsylvania in August 2023.

Her research lies at the intersection of gender, urbanization and politics with a regional specialization on South Asia, specifically India. She utilizes a mixed methods approach combining large scale observational and administrative data, with fieldwork intensive quantitative and qualitative data. Her research is forthcoming in the Journal of Politics.

Her research is generously supported by the NSF funded APSA Dissertation Research Improvement Grant, Judith Rodin Fellowship, Center for the Advanced Study of India (CASI) and Fox Leadership Institute. Prior to starting at Penn, she was a Research Associate at IDFC Institute, a think-tank in Mumbai.