Research and CV
Published and Forthcoming Books
South Asian Mobilities (edited with Benjamin Linder); Forthcoming 2024; University of Amsterdam Press
Mumbai Taximen: Autobiographies and Automobilties In India (2022) University of Washington Press
Mumbai Taximen was a winner of a 2022, Victor Turner Prize (2nd Prize) in Ethnographic Writing
The Dashing Ladies of Shiv Sena: Political Matronage in Urbanizing India (2016) SUNY Series in Hindu Studies; Albany, NY: SUNY Press
The Dashing Ladies of Shiv Sena: Political Matronage in Urbanizing India (2016) Delhi, India: Aleph Book Company
Professional Leadership, Collaborations & Partnerships
I am currently Program Director for Cultural Anthropology at the National Science Foundation
I co-edit the journal Anthropology of Work Review with my colleague and award winning author Mythri Jegathesan.
I direct the Mobilities and Methods Lab at UIC. The Mobilities and Methods Lab has an exciting podcasting partnership with the New Books Network. Listen to our podcasts.
Between 2021-2023 I also held the Expanding Internationality Professorship at the Heidelberg Center for Transcultural Studies at the University of Heidelberg, Germany.
I have been a visiting fellow, visiting professor, and visiting distinguished professor at various centers at my own university such as a Faculty Fellow at UIC 's Institute for the Humanities and at the Great Cities Institute, and at international universities such as the Center for Mobilities Research (CeMoRe) at Lancaster University, the University of New South Wales in Australia, and the Asia Research Institute at the National University of Singapore.
Commitments to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
In my research, pedagogy, and service to my university and my discipline, I have been involved in both local and national efforts at expanding the diversity of the professoriate, such as the Equity Advocates Program, expanding opportunities for doctoral students at Minority Serving Institutions, and supporting programs to expand access to students in the classroom.
Selected Grants
National Science Foundation, Cultural Anthropology Senior Research Award for "Labor webs and the Transformation of Local Transportation Infrastructures," 2019-2023, Principal Investigator
Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, Post-PhD Research Grant in Socio-Cultural Anthropology for “Everyday Technologies of the Urban: Motoring and Mobilities in Bombay/Mumbai’s Taxi Trade.” (2016-2018), Principal Investigator
Social Science Research Council, Transregional Postdoctoral Fellowship (2013), Finalist; Principal Investigator
American Institute of Indian Studies, Senior Research Fellowship, “Taxi Drivers and Urban Change: Local Histories of Place in Mumbai’s Pathanwadi.” (2010-11), Principal Investigator
American Institute of Indian Studies (AIIS), Junior Dissertation Research Fellowship (National competitive fellowship for dissertation research in India) (2005-2006), Principal Investigator
Curriculum Vitae
BediCV2023.pdf