Tag Archives: Kerala
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 […]
New Directions in the Study of the Arab World
I was selected to participate in the fourth Annual Graduate Student Research Workshop under the theme “New Directions in the Study of the Arab World” at the Humanities Research Fellowship for the Study of the Arab World at NYU Abu Dhabi, UAE. My thanks go to Dr. Erin Pettigrew, Dr. Nathalie Peutz, and Raya Lakova for […]
Ordinary Places: Thinking about Space, Scale, and Region in South Indian Cities
Thomas Oommen and I organized a paper session at the 52nd Annual Conference on South Asia. Below is the abstract and the list of participants for the session. Many thanks to Stephen Young for serving as a discussant for the session. Ordinary Places: Thinking about Space, Scale, and Region in South Indian Cities Organizers: Siddharth […]
From Gulf Houses to NRI Flats: On Kochi’s “World Class” Urban Transformation
I published a short essay from PhD dissertation in Ala: A Kerala Studies Blog. Many thanks to Shilpa Menon and the Editors of Ala for thoughtful comments and feedback that have significantly improved this essay. Read the full essay here, https://alablog.in/issues/68/gulf-houses-to-nri-flats/ As you exit the “world’s first green airport” in Nedumbassery on the outskirts of […]



