My interests are in science and technology studies, political anthropology, and development geography. I work on questions of democratization, technology governance, and sustainability, with a focus on Maharashtra in western India.
My first project examined the ongoing controversy over genetically modified (GM) food crops in India. This research culminated in my book Genetically Modified Democracy: Transgenic crops in contemporary India (Yale University Press, 2021 and Orient Blackswan South Asia, 2022), which won the 2022 Ludwik Fleck Prize from the Society for the Social Studies of Science (4S). This was the first time in nearly 30 years that the prize went to a researcher based in the global South.
My second project explores ethnographic filmmaking as multimodal research and public scholarship into questions of agrarian change, biodiversity conservation and recognition of Indigenous (Adivasi) agroecological traditions. Collaborating with the geographer and filmmaker Chitrangada Choudhury, I co-directed Seed Stories (2024). The film has been selected for multiple international film festivals and leading colleges and institutions across the world have hosted screenings.
I am currently working on a biography of India's Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005 and its intersections with struggles for justice, technology regulation and democratization.
I holds a PhD in socio-cultural anthropology from Yale University. My doctoral thesis was awarded the 2016 Sardar Patel Best Dissertation Prize. This award, conferred by the University of California Los Angeles, goes to the best doctoral dissertation in the U.S.A. on any aspect of modern India across the fields of humanities, social sciences, fine arts and education. I also hold a B.Tech. (Electronics & Electrical Communication Engineering) from IIT Kharagpur, and an MS (Business Research) from the University of Southern California.
My first project examined the ongoing controversy over genetically modified (GM) food crops in India. This research culminated in my book Genetically Modified Democracy: Transgenic crops in contemporary India (Yale University Press, 2021 and Orient Blackswan South Asia, 2022), which won the 2022 Ludwik Fleck Prize from the Society for the Social Studies of Science (4S). This was the first time in nearly 30 years that the prize went to a researcher based in the global South.
My second project explores ethnographic filmmaking as multimodal research and public scholarship into questions of agrarian change, biodiversity conservation and recognition of Indigenous (Adivasi) agroecological traditions. Collaborating with the geographer and filmmaker Chitrangada Choudhury, I co-directed Seed Stories (2024). The film has been selected for multiple international film festivals and leading colleges and institutions across the world have hosted screenings.
I am currently working on a biography of India's Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005 and its intersections with struggles for justice, technology regulation and democratization.
I holds a PhD in socio-cultural anthropology from Yale University. My doctoral thesis was awarded the 2016 Sardar Patel Best Dissertation Prize. This award, conferred by the University of California Los Angeles, goes to the best doctoral dissertation in the U.S.A. on any aspect of modern India across the fields of humanities, social sciences, fine arts and education. I also hold a B.Tech. (Electronics & Electrical Communication Engineering) from IIT Kharagpur, and an MS (Business Research) from the University of Southern California.
Before joining SUNY Buffalo, I was Associate Professor of Environmental Studies at Ashoka University in India. I have also taught at the School for Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan Ann Arbor.
I have published research in the Journal of Peasant Studies, Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, and Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, while policy-oriented writings have appeared in Scientific American, The Hindu, Economic & Political Weekly, The Peoples’ Archive of Rural India, Article 14, and The Wire, among others. My article on pesticide marketing in Maharashtra was awarded the 2019-20 Krishna Bharadwaj-Eric Wolf Prize by the Journal of Peasant Studies.
I am especially keen to work with students from disadvantaged groups, including students from rural, marginalized caste and Adivasi backgrounds.
