Priya Barchi received her BA in Anthropology, with a concentration in Archaeology, and in Asian & Middle Eastern Studies from Barnard College of Columbia University in 2019. While there, she pursued the study of Sanskrit, South Asian ancient and contemporary history, and enriched her background in Classical studies by focusing on the Hellenistic East. Her thesis investigated the notion of Greco-Indian identity in Bactria and the Northern Indian Subcontinent during the Kushan period.
Her current research focuses on cross-cultural interactions in the Western Indian Ocean World in the 1st millennium CE, exploring the social identities of raw material gatherers in South Asia, their connections with merchants and the urban elite, and the relationships between hinterland and coastal areas within Indian Ocean trade networks. She also works on developing new frameworks for studying itinerant and diasporic identities through a post-national, post–area studies approach.