Born and raised in Singapore, Sandeep is a scholar of Southeast Asian Studies focusing on literary approaches to the Cold War legacy in the region. His first book project, Rethinking Cold Wars Through Southeast Asian Literature, shows how the violence of Cold War conflicts in the region was translated into Southeast Asian literary tropes in creative works of authors from Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and the Philippines. In doing so, the project offers a re-thinking of wars in Southeast Asia to show how affective, romantic, and nostalgic writing by local authors create new ways of thinking of ideology, the postcolony, and anti-colonial sentiment against US-USSR imperial formations. 

Sandeep's second book project, Haunting Singapore: Walking with the Ghosts of War in Malaya, is a writing about the ghostly memories of Japanese military assault in Singapore as well as subsequent occupation, during the 1941-1945 period, which are kept alive in local Singaporean legends of spirits, possession, and hauntings. The book is anchored on the memories of the derelict and eerie 'Old' Changi Hospital in Singapore, beaches, and other such abandoned locations, which were also key sites of local massacres by the Japanese military in WWII. It draws on popular ghost stories related to military personnel and war victims circulating in Singapore society gathered through field interviews, newspaper archives, radio shows, and Singaporean storybooks. Ultimately, Haunting Singapore shows how war suffering is constantly and temporally lived by Singaporeans and Malaysians -- articulated and kept alive in fast-paced, statist societies through the quiet thrive of a horror subculture.  

Sandeep is fluent in the Malay language. He regularly teaches courses in Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore Studies, and military studies. He has been teaching at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, and Singapore Management University since 2021. Sandeep also serves on the editorial board of POINTER: Journal of the Singapore Armed Forces.