I spent July-August 2023 conducting semi-structured interviews and participant observations with research participants involved in Dubai’s real estate industry, including diaspora Indian home buyers and investors, real estate brokers, sales and marketing executives, and banking sector officials. Below are images from this fieldwork.

I had the opportunity to participate in the Symposium titled “Material as Method: New Histories of the Built Environment” at the Annual Conference on South Asia at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in October 2023. Many thanks to Ateya Khorakiwala (Columbia University) & Curt Gambetta (Dartmouth College) for organizing and facilitating the same. Please find the […]

During my fieldwork in Kerala from September 2022 to August 2023, I was affiliated to the Center for Development Studies (CDS) in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala as a PhD Research Scholar under the guidance of Prof. J. Devika. The campus of CDS was designed by the late Laurie Baker. Many thanks to Prof. Devika for her guidance […]

I had the opportunity to participate in American Institute of Indian Studies (AIIS) Junior Fellows Annual Conference at New Delhi in December 2022. Many thanks to AIIS for organizing the same and faculty mentors Prof. Geeta Patel, Prof. Sanjam Ahluwalia, Prof. Sumathi Ramaswamy, and Prof. Radhika Govindrajan for their insightful comments and feedback on participant’s […]

Below are images from dissertation fieldwork in Kerala, India where I followed the trail of sand for concrete construction along its production chain from building construction sites in Kochi city, Kerala’s commercial capital, to its sources in rivers and stone quarries in the Western Ghat mountain ranges in Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

I was invited to present my latest research paper, titled M-Sand, Metal, and the “More-than-Urban” Political Ecology of Urban Development in Kerala, at the Center for Development Studies (CDS) in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala on 28 April 2023. Many thanks to Prof. J. Devika for her support and guidance through the research project. Please find details of […]