Dr. Rahul Rao is a writer and academic in the School of International Relations at the University of St Andrews, previously teaching at SOAS University of London and University College, Oxford. A Rhodes Scholar, he holds a law degree from the National Law School of India University and a doctorate in international relations from the University of Oxford. His work examines international politics through the lens of struggles around class, race, caste, gender and sexuality, and he is the author of three books and numerous articles. Raised in Bangalore, he now lives between Edinburgh and the Isle of Mull, where his recent writing has expanded to engage with more-than-human worlds.
The Psychic Lives of Statues: Reckoning with the Rubble of Empire (Pluto Press, 2025) examines the global controversies surrounding statues as flashpoints for debates about empire, memory, and decolonisation. Drawing on case studies from countries including South Africa, the United Kingdom, the United States, India and Australia, Rahul Rao explores how struggles over the removal and creation of monuments reveal deeper tensions around race, caste and political identity. Through engagement with artists, scholars and activists, the book argues that statues remain powerful sites through which societies negotiate their past and reimagine their present.