Nipun Kottage

Doctoral Student
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Bio

Nipun Kottage is a medical student and cultural anthropology PhD candidate in the joint MD-PhD program at the University of Pennsylvania. His dissertation examines the aftermaths of mass violence within intimate and institutional life in Sri Lanka. His work describes the experiences of human rights activists and medical students who survived a conflict between the State and a Marxist insurgency in Southern Sri Lanka from 1987-1991. Nipun’s work considers the relationships between social movements, infrastructures of care, and collective memory.
At Penn, Nipun has collaborated with several community-based organizations to support social services in Philadelphia. As a medical student, he worked with the Penn Medicine Social Needs Response Team to connect health system patients with urgent services during the COVID-19 emergency. Later, he worked with the Coalition to Save the UC Townhomes to advocate for the preservation of public housing in Philadelphia. 
Perviously, Nipun completed Bachelors of Science Degrees in Biochemistry and Anthropology at the University of Maryland. There, he worked as a student-project manager for a community well project in Ghana. He also worked with survivors of gun violence in Washington, D.C. to understand the causes of consequences of gun violence to better provide social services. 
Nipun’s work has been supported by the U.S. Department of Education Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship, the Penn Museum, and the University of Pennsylvania Department of Anthropology. He is a Penn Medicine Center for Health Equity Advancement Fellow, member of Penn EnviroLab, and a member of the American Institute for Sri Lanka Studies. Nipun has a clinical interest in emergency medicine. 

 

Education

2019 B.S. University of Maryland, Anthropology & Biochemistry

Interests

Subfield

Graduate Status