Tag Archives: Siddharth Menon
Indian Ocean Urbanisms
Dr. Smriti Srinivas and I organised a panel on “Indian Ocean Urbanisms” at the 54th Annual Conference on South Asia in Madison, Wisconsin on October 24, 2025. Many thanks to the participants for making this an engaging session (CFP below). Indian Ocean Urbanisms Organizers: Smriti Srinivas, Professor, Department of Anthropology, UC-Davis & Siddharth Menon, Assistant Professor […]
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), […]
Whitbeck Graduate Dissertator Award 2024
I’m happy to have been awarded the Whitbeck Graduate Dissertator Award 2024 from the Department of Geography at UW-Madison to support me through the final stages of writing my PhD dissertation titled, “Infrastructural Entanglements: Money, Mediation, and Materiality in Transnational India”. Ray Hughes Whitbeck, Professor of Geography
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 […]
TRANSNATIONAL URBANISM
Below are images from ethnographic fieldwork conducted 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.
MATERIAL AS METHOD-New Histories of the Built Environment
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 […]
CENTER FOR DEVELOPMENT STUDIES (CDS), KERALA
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 […]
AIIS Junior Fellows Annual Conference
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 […]
MATERIALITY, INFRASTRUCTURAL LABOR & SOCIAL DIFFERENCE
Below is a selected list of readings that informed my thinking about the connections between infrastructure materiality, infrastructural labor, and social difference. These readings form a key part of my journal article – “Class, Caste, Gender, and the Materiality of Cement Houses in India” – published in Antipode (2023, 55 (2)). Truelove, Y. (2011). (Re-)Conceptualizing […]
Siddharth Menon 