2018 PhD, Social Work, Brown School, Washington University in St Louis

2010 Diploma in Envrionmental Law, National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bangalore

2007 MA, Social Work, Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai

2005 BA, English Literature, Mumbai University 

2018-current Researcher and faculty, Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS), Bangalore 

2016-18 Visiting faculty, CEPT University, Ahmedabad

2009-11 Researcher, Foundation for Ecological Security (FES), Anand

2007-08 Researcher, Environment Support Group (ESG), Bangalore

2007 Researcher, TISS Field Action Project, Andaman and Nicobar Islands

Teaching at IIHS:

I find teaching exciting as both a medium of learning and communicating ideas. Teaching in an interdisciplinary  classroom has meant exploring scholarship from wide sources, while also finding ways to facilitate discussions and articulate ideas such that they hold meaning for learners coming from various disciplinary backgrounds. In the classroom, I draw heavily from my research and field experiences.

Urban Health:

I co-teach this course with colleagues at IIHS. The course enables learners to think about the 'urban' and 'health' together. We take a health systems approach to study governance, institutions and social determinants of health. Using case examples from ongoing research projects at IIHS, we look at intersections such as 'chronic health conditions and impact on livelihoods' and 'informal work and maternal health.' The learners are encouraged to explore health as part of other urban systems, and trace imaginations of health systems from an interdisciplinary perspective. 

Ethnographic Methods:

The skill lab focuses on the “knowing” and “doing” of ethnographic research. The introductory sessions expose fellows to the epistemological approaches informing research frameworks and the importance of reflexivity. Thereafter, fellows learn how to conceptualize a study, and are familiarized with a range of methods- such as interviews, observation, time-use surveys, focus group discussion and photovoice- that they can put into practice. The process of coding and analysis is taught with the help of data from past research projects. 

Open Resource on qualitative research methods: https://tinyurl.com/532frpam

City & Literature:

As part of the 'Writing the City' skill lab at IIHS, we offer a module on city and literature. We read different litreary works from small and large cities of the country, exploring how authors construct and imagine the experience of living in the urban.  

Open Resource: https://tinyurl.com/44rezuhk

Previous teaching experience:

I have previously taught qualitative research methods course to Masters and PhD students at CEPT University (Ahmedabad).

During my doctoral education, I have been a teaching assistant in the following courses:

• Transdisciplinary Problem Solving: Global Hunger and Undernutrition (Prof. Lora Iannotti)

• Power and Politics in Global Health (Prof. Jean Francois Trani)

• Economic and Social Development in the US (Prof. Molly Metzger) 

I study informal work, social protection, gender and urban health. My doctoral work focused on child undernutrition, maternal access to healthcare services and government programmes among migrant households engaged in construction work. Building on this, at IIHS my work examines how women in the informal economy experience the mother-worker conundrum as they seek to balance paid work and childcare in the absence of maternity benefits. 

Ongoing research projects:

Breastfeeding at worksites

Child migration and health

Informal work, social protection and MNCH

Methods in practice

Paid and unpaid work