Fieldwork

I will be conducting fieldwork in Bengaluru, India from July 1 to August 31, 2025. If you are based in Bengaluru and are interested in connecting, I would love to hear from you!

Objectives

The primary goal of this fieldwork is to explore the political behavior of persons with disabilities in India. While existing research has largely focused on the United States and other Western democracies, we have limited scientific understanding of how disability intersects with political behavior in different institutional, political, and cultural contexts. This study seeks to begin filling that gap.

Methods

Although my long-term objective is to make causal claims about the drivers of political behavior among persons with disabilities (which will require a quantitative approach to hypothesis testing), the literature on the political behavior of persons with disabilities is not yet sufficiently mature to produce a satisfying set of hypotheses about these drivers. Therefore, I will begin with an exploratory, qualitative approach to theory building and hypothesis generation.

Research activities will include: 

• Conducting semi-structured interviews

• Conducting survey

Looking for participants for an interview

I am currently preparing for the interview phase of the project and will soon be recruiting participants. If you or someone you know identifies as a person with a disability and is interested in sharing their experiences, please feel free to reach out.