Tag Archives: Concrete
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 […]
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 […]
A Concrete Solution
Work from my Master’s degree on the social dimensions of concrete houses in India was featured in the University of Wisconsin-Madison Letters & Science Newsletter. Many thanks to Kai Wen Li for taking interest in my work and for writing this excellent article. https://ls.wisc.edu/news/a-concrete-solution
SAND ECOLOGIES
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.
M-Sand, Metal, and the “More-than-Urban” Political Ecology of Urban Development in Kerala
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 […]
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 […]
iihs PhD Workshop 2022
I had the opportunity to participate in the eight edition of the Indian Institute of Human Settlements (IIHS) PhD workshop which was held virtually in January 2022. Many thanks to IIHS faculty Chandni Singh and Jagdish Krishnaswamy for their insightful comments on my dissertation ideas and research plan. Please find below some images from the […]
CONCRETE CLIMATES
This is a short essay that I wrote for the South Asian Urban Climates blog which is a “platform for discussion, collaboration, and emerging scholarship on the histories, power structures, and material assemblages that make up the climate in and across South Asian cities.” Many thanks to Nida Rehman and Aparna Parikh for bringing this […]
US National Science Foundation
I’m happy to announce that I’ve been awarded the U. S. National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Award to conduct my doctoral dissertation research in India. Details can be found here. ABSTRACT This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2). This doctoral […]
Siddharth Menon 