State, Stateless Societies, and Problems of Power (SOA-2101-1)
The question of the state has preoccupied social scientists for a very long time. Much has been discussed and debated about its origins, forms, and relevance, and different theorizations of the state have emerged from across theoretical perspectives. We live at a time when, on the one hand, the forces of neoliberalism seem to want to relegate the state to irrelevance, while on the other, the ongoing genocide in Gaza and conflicts and wars between nation-states challenge the very ideas of “sovereignty” and statehood. The rising authoritarianism and right-wing nationalism pose further challenges to many communities globally, rendering some of them stateless. These are therefore times when the question of the state becomes ever more important.

What is the state? How are states formed and what forms do they take, when and where? Is the state capitalist? Is the developmental state dead? How does power operate both within a state and between state and society? How does bureaucracy work? Who is a citizen? What does it mean to be stateless? Of what relevance is the state in the age of neoliberal privatization? These are but a few important questions that this course will try to engage with. Drawing on an interdisciplinary body of work, including ethnographies, theoretical texts, and audio-visual materials, this course will expose students to multiple ways of thinking about the state and power in general.

Introduction to Environmental Studies (FC-0102-3)
This course is meant to introduce students to nature-society dialectics. We will examine the historical, social, and political processes that shape societal relations with the natural environment. The course has three overarching goals. First, it will help students gain an in-depth understanding of some of the pressing environmental issues of our times, such as the agrarian crisis, climate change, disaster and vulnerability, waste, the industrial food system, struggles over water, and neoliberalization of nature, among others. Second, drawing on a variety of theoretical frameworks, including Marxist, feminist, and post-structuralist perspectives, the course will expose students to a breadth of approaches to environmental questions. Finally, through this course, I hope to be able to cultivate a sense of environmental citizenship in students. The course will be taught using a combination of lectures, discussions, films, and group projects.

Rethinking Development and Sustainability (SOA-2243/ES-2006/POL-2130-1)
This course critically examines the processes of “development” and “sustainability,” and the ways in which the two interact with each other. The course provides a critical overview of development theories, including classical political economy, modernization theory, dependency theory, post developmentalism, feminist theories of development, sustainable development, and so on. It traces the ideas of development from the 19th century onward, with a particular focus on development thinking in the post-World War II period. At the same time, the course examines certain development projects for a more grounded understanding of how “development” occurs, to whose benefit, and why there is little consensus on what development entails. It then engages with the multiple ways in which development processes interact with and reshape the environment, thereby affecting the realities of people around the world, and the Global South in particular. To this end, the course specifically focuses on debates and theories around & “sustainability,” and critically evaluates them in the broader contexts of the climate crisis, wars and conflicts, and environmental injustice. At least one field visit will be organized to help students gain a firsthand experience of some of the concepts covered in the course. 

The Social Life of Water (SOA-3131/ES-3408/POL-3109-1)
What is water? How does water shape and is being shaped by social relations and cultural practices, and how do these interactions vary across societies and geographic scales? In what ways does power mediate people’s access to and control over water? This course dives deep into various epistemological and ontological questions surrounding water. Water is life-giving and non-substitutable. A decade and a half ago, in July 2010, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution that recognized the right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation as a human right. Yet nearly a billion people in the world still lack access to safe drinking water, and water-related diseases and deaths remain pervasive, especially in the Global South. At the same time, water – and mega hydraulic projects in particular – remains a central preoccupation for most modern states. The recent years have also witnessed increased instances of water grabbing and privatization at a global scale, giving rise to water conflicts as well as processes of accumulation by dispossession.

Drawing on a set of interdisciplinary literature, this course will provide students an in-depth cultural and political ecological understanding of water, with a special focus on South Asia. Students will also get to interact with some of the experts in the field who will be invited as guest speakers. Besides, field visits will be conducted within Delhi-NCR to help student with a firsthand understanding of issues related to urban water, sanitation, and water justice.

Agrarian Worlds: Land, Culture and Power (ES-3401/SOA-3224-1)
How has capitalism impacted the agrarian world? Have these impacts been homogenous across time and space? How have agrarian societies around the world responded to the capitalist and neoliberal forces? These are but some of the questions that this course investigates in trying to understand the modern transformations of the rural/agrarian world and the broader socio-political implications thereof. The course is theoretically rigorous and empirically grounded. It covers a wide range of issues, including the classical agrarian question, contemporary agrarian debates, green revolution and its legacies, the question(s) of food, land and water grabbing, farmer suicides in India, gender and agriculture, transnational peasant movements, and the recent farmers protest in India. As part of the course, students will also get a chance to watch some iconic films on the agrarian worlds. There will also be at least one field visit. This course will be run as a seminar, which means students will be expected to actively participate in class discussions.

Nature, Culture, Power (SOA-3125/ES-3343/SOA-6115-1)
This course examines the political economic contexts of environmental transformations and the ways in which our understandings of and relations with nature are materially and discursively bound up with notions of culture, identity, and power. In the Anthropocene, it has become particularly important to re-examine the meaning(s) of nature, and the relations that humans have with the non-humans, including material artefacts, across different scales. Equally relevant is to question what constitutes anthropological knowledge and how it is produced. This course engages with these issues by drawing on scholarship in political ecology, agrarian studies, and the Anthropocene. The course is designed as a graduate seminar, which means it is reading- and writing-intensive. We will read the texts closely and critically, and start every class with a round of student presentations on the readings. You will also need to write a final research paper on a topic of your choice that is relevant to the course. Advanced undergraduate students are also welcome to take this course.

Anthropology of Disaster and Vulnerability (SOA-2222/ ES-2439-1)
Neil Smith famously said – “there’s no such thing as a natural disaster.” He was echoing a generation of environmental geographers and anthropologists. Over the past few decades, critical scholarship on disaster and vulnerability has grown significantly, drawing on, among others, frameworks of political economy and political ecology. At the same time, hazards and disasters have also become increasingly frequent and destructive across the planet. From mega events such as tsunamis, hurricanes, earthquakes, nuclear accidents and oil spills to slow-onset disasters like air pollution, desertification, epidemics, soil erosion and sea level rise, disaster has come to define the times that we live in. Climate change has made matters worse. The impact of a disaster is uneven, however; some people are much more vulnerable than others. This course is aimed at providing students critical perspectives on disaster and vulnerability. We will begin with an overview of concepts such as risk, hazards, disaster and vulnerability. Drawing on case studies from around the world, the course will then expose students to a variety of political and cultural questions concerning disaster and vulnerability. The students will learn about, among others, the role of the state and capital in the production of disaster and hazardscape; how vulnerability is a social calculus; ideas of climate coloniality and climate justice; how various societies in different historical moments have responded to calamity, offering insight into the complex relationships between societies and their natural environments; and how disaster management efforts can promote widespread resilience or increase the vulnerability of some populations, thereby further deepening societal inequities. The course also has a field visit, focused on urban hazards.

Invited Visiting Faculty Positions:
December 1-15, 2025. Erasmus + ICM Visiting Faculty at Linnaeus University, Vaxjo, Sweden.
June 23-July 7, 2024. Nanjing University-Cambridge University Global Humanities Network Summer School & “Water, Climate, and Global Humanities,” held at Nanjing University.