Maisnam Arnapal is a Doctoral Candidate in Feminist Studies with an interdisciplinary emphasis in Global Studies. He is a 2026 Yale University Sarah Pettit Dissertation Fellow and a previous recipient of UCSB Chancellor’s Doctoral Fellowship. His research looks at the politics of racialized gender and sexuality in the shadow of decades-old armed conflict and militarism with a particular focus on Manipur in the India-Myanmar borderland.
Maisnam received a fellowship from UCSB Orfalea Center for Global & International Studies through which he produced a documentary film, Manglaan. Filmed in 2023 during the peak of the ongoing ethnic conflict in Manipur, Manglaan (meaning dreams and desires in Meiteilon) follows the lives and work of Nupa Maanba (Indigenous transmasc from Manipur) who coach conflict-affected children living in makeshift camps. The film portrays how Nupa Maanba negotiate gender norms and societal discrimination while leveraging their soccer skills to provide collective care, foster community, and build peace in the face of precarity and uncertainty at this site of violence. Premiered at UC Santa Barbara, it was invited for screening at UC Berkeley and IIIT-Delhi.
Maisnam is also the recipient of the 2026 Dixon-Levy Service Award from UCSB Graduate Student Association, and the 2025 Distinguished Service Award from the Department of Feminist Studies. He is an IHC Public Humanities Graduate Fellow with the Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation.
Connect with Maisnam on academia.edu