Dr Nikky-Guninder Kaur Singh was born in India and went to America to attend Stuart Hall, a girls' preparatory school in the USA. She received her BA in Philosophy and Religion from Wellesley College, MA from the University of Pennsylvania, and PhD from Temple University. Dr. Nikky is the Chair of the department and Crawford Family Professor of Religion at Colby College in the USA. Her interests focus on poetics and feminist issues. She has published extensively in the field of Sikh Studies. Her books include Poems from the Guru Granth Sahib, The First Sikh: Life and Legacy of Guru Nanak, Of Sacred and Secular Desire: An Anthology of Lyrical Writings from the Punjab, Sikhism: An Introduction, Birth of the Khalsa: A Feminist Re-memory of Sikh Identity, Cosmic Symphony: The Early and Later Poems of Bhai Vir Singh, Feminine Principle in the Sikh Vision of the Transcendent, The Name of My Beloved, Physics and Metaphysics of the Guru Granth Sahib. She has lectured widely, and her views have also been aired on television and radio in America, Canada, England, Ireland, Australia, India, and Bangladesh.

She has received many awards for her scholarly works. In 2022, City of Fresno in California proclaimed 26 March as 'Dr. Nikky-Guninder Kaur Singh' Day.