Tarini Bedi

I am a Liberal Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Illinois Chicago. I am also the Director of the Mobilities and Methods Lab (MML), Affiliated Faculty in the Department of Urban Planning and Policy at UIC, and Adjunct Curator at the Field Museum of Chicago.

Beginning in  Fall 2023, I am on rotation as the Program Director for Cultural Anthropology at the National Science Foundation.  In this capacity, I welcome inquiries from Anthropologists interested in developing exciting new project proposals for independent and collaborative research. Senior faculty and graduate students who are considering submitting grant proposals in Cultural Anthropology or related fields, please be in touch at tbedi@nsf.gov.

My current doctoral advisees work on a variety of topical areas. You can get a sense of these here.

I always welcome inquiries from prospective graduate students interested in our department. However, while I am on leave from UIC at the National Science Foundation, I am not taking on any new doctoral advisees at this time. However, many of my departmental colleagues are. Please do explore the range of possibilities for graduate advising and mentoring in our department here. 

My primary regional area of specialization is South Asia though I have also conducted several years of fieldwork in Singapore to trace networks of urbanization between South and Southeast Asia. I have also recently started a new multi-year project on infrastructure development, urbanization, border design, and religious pilgrimage along the Kartarpur Corridor between India and Pakistan. 

My research has been supported by the National Science Foundation's Cultural Anthropology Program, the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, and the American Institute of Indian Studies.