Category academic writing
Reinforcing Infrastructures: Capital, Nature, and the Translocal Relationalities of Urbanizing India
Below is the abstract and link to my PhD dissertation (2025) from the Department of Geography at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA. I am grateful to my PhD adviser, Prof. Stephen Young (Geography), and my PhD committee members, Prof. Kris Olds (Geography), Prof. Matt Turner (Geography), Prof. Mou Banerji (History), and Prof. Claire Wendland (Anthropology), […]
Sand, Plantation Urbanism, and the Extended Political Ecology of Infrastructures in India
Out now in the International Journal of Urban and Regional Research where I examine how sand extraction from the Western Ghat mountains for elite urban infrastructure projects in south India is re-empowering a historically dominant set of rural upper-caste actors who have now begun to extend their political economic power into cities thus furthering uneven […]
Dubai diasporas, transnational remittances and intimate infrastructures of finance in India
Out now in Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space where I discuss how remittances from Dubai-based Indian diasporas are being financialized for elite infrastructure projects in Indian cities thus furthering uneven urban development. Details below: Menon, S. (2025). Dubai diasporas, transnational remittances and intimate infrastructures of finance in India. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 57(6): 719–738. https://doi.org/10.1177/0308518X251344129 […]
Incompleteness
I’m happy to have a chapter in the book, The Social Properties of Concrete, which brings together 40 scholars from across the world to think about how the world’s most ubiquitous material after water – concrete – shapes everyday social life. Many thanks to the editors, Eli Elinoff and Kali Rubaii, for steering this incredible […]
SOUTH ASIAN URBAN CLIMATES: Towards Pluralistic Narratives and Expanded Lexicons
Out now in International Journal of Urban and Regional Research. Our co-authored intervention article about the need to expand the narratives and lexicons about urban development and climate change in South Asia. Many thanks to Nida Rehman and Aparna Parikh for bringing these excellent scholars together on one platform and powering this endeavor through to […]
CLASS, CASTE, GENDER, AND THE MATERIALITY OF CEMENT HOUSES IN INDIA
Out now in Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geography. My peer-reviewed article on the intersectional class, caste, and gender dynamics of new cement houses in India. It’s open access here. A PDF version can be downloaded below. Menon, S. (2023). Class, Caste, Gender, and the Materiality of Cement Houses in India. Antipode, 55 (2) pp. 574-598 […]
“The Promise of Infrastructure” by Nikhil Anand, Akhil Gupta & Hannah Appel (eds.)
Please find below an excerpt from my review of The Promise of Infrastructure by Nikhil Anand, Akhil Gupta & Hannah Appel (eds.) for The AAG Review of Books. To read the full review, please follow this link.
“Shiptown: Between Rural and Urban North India” by Ann Grodzins Gold
Please find below an excerpt from my review of Shiptown: Between Rural and Urban North India by Ann Grodzins Gold for Economic and Political Weekly To read the full review, please follow this link.
Siddharth Menon 