ACADEMIC POSITIONS
2022 — Associate Professor of Sociology, CRIS, Sciences Po, Paris
2022 — Scientific Director of GLM master’s program, Urban School, Sciences Po, Paris
2015-2022 Assistant Professor of Sociology, OSC, Sciences Po, Paris
2013-2015 Postdoctoral Fellow in Political Economy, DPIR, University of Oxford
2012-2013 Teaching Fellow, Watson Institute for International Studies, Brown University
2011-2012 Research Assistant, Spatial Structures in the Social Sciences, Brown University
2009-2011 Managing Editor, City & Community
2007-2009 Editorial Associate, Studies in Comparative International Development
2006-2009 Research Assistant, Spatial Structures in the Social Sciences, Brown University
2003-2005 Teaching and Research Assistant, Cornell University
2002-2003 Independent Instructor, National College, Mumbai, India
EDUCATION
HDR, Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches, Sciences Po, Paris (November 2020)
Ph.D., Brown University, Sociology (2013)
M.Sc., Cornell University, Communications (2006)
Diploma, Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad, India (2000)
B.A. (Hons.), Lady Shri Ram College, India, Psychology (1998)
AWARDS
Undergraduate Council Teaching and Advising Award, Brown University (2013)
George Award, Qualitative and Multi-method Research section, American Political Science Association (2011): awarded for the paper Cammett and Issar (2010)
SELECTED PRESENTATIONS AND INVITED TALKS
2023 ‘Thinking Southern Urbanism through Incentive Floor Space Index’, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, School of Public Policy
2022 ‘Nuisance law and the Committee of Buildings in late 18th-century Bombay’ Common Law Research Seminar, Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory
2021 ‘Institutional Change and the Affordable Care Act’ (with Matthias Dilling), Nuffield Political Science Seminar, University of Oxford
2019 ‘The political economy of urban regulations’, RC21 New Delhi, India
2018 Public talk, ‘The Great Mumbai Fire of 1803’ at Alliance Francaise, Mumbai
2017 ‘Policy, implementation, forbearance? Informal housing in Mumbai, 1880-2015’, International Development Research Seminar Series, LSE
2016 ‘The Role of Failed, Fumbled or Foiled Plans in Institutional Change’ (with Matthias Dilling), Sciences Po, Paris
2016 ‘Documents, Power and Rule Ambiguity’, Department of Methodology Seminar, LSE
2016 ‘Nuts and Bolts: Fieldnotes, Analysis, Writing’, Nuffield Qualitative Methods Seminar, University of Oxford, UK
2015 ‘The Politics of Urban Density, Mumbai 1880-2015’, OSC, Sciences Po, Paris.
2015 ‘Codes of Construction: Building Regulations and ‘Slum’ Housing in Mumbai, 1880-2010’. Negotiating Change in Urban Spaces conference, University of Oxford
2015 ‘Policy sequencing and low-income housing, Mumbai 1880-2010’, DPIR Seminar, University of Oxford
2015 ‘Concepts of Rules in Interdisciplinary Perspective’, Constitutional Studies Seminar, University of Oxford
2015 ‘Thinking about Rules’, Nuffield Postdoctoral Seminar Series’, University of Oxford
2014 ‘Theorizing and Analyzing Qualitative Data’, at the Qualitative Methods Workshop, DPIR and Nuffield College, University of Oxford
2014 ‘Constitutional Rules and Patterns of Cabinet Termination’, Fixed Term Parliaments Conference, University of Oxford
2014 ‘Documents, Power and Historical Method’, the Long 19th c. Seminar, History Faculty, University of Oxford
2014 ‘A two-dimensional typology of early government terminations’, APSA, Washington DC, USA
2014 ‘Qualitative Data Analysis’, at the Qualitative Methods Workshop, DPIR and Nuffield College, University of Oxford
2013 ‘Policy Sequencing and the Slum-Regulation Link, Bombay 1880-2010’, Nuffield Postdoctoral Seminar Series, University of Oxford
2013 ‘The Slum as Negotiated Compromise in Mumbai, 1880-2010’, Marginality Conference, Brown University, RI
2013 ‘Why Compare Across Time’, Comparative Cities conference, Brown University, RI
2012 ‘Building Markets: Urban Policy and Neoliberal Transitions’, American Sociological Association, Denver, CO
2011 ‘Transforming the City: Institutional Stasis and Change in Mumbai, 1900-2010’, Social Science History Association, Boston, MA
2011 ‘Rethinking Welfare Dependence in a Post-Reform Era: The Case of Food Assistance’, Annual American Sociological Association, Las Vegas, NV
2010 ‘Beyond Price: Housing Markets and the Moral Economy of Commodification (in Mumbai, India)’, American Sociological Association, Atlanta, GA
2009 Harvard University’s Middle Eastern Studies Group, ‘Bricks and Mortar Clientelism: Sectarianism and the Logics of Social Provision in Lebanon,’ with Melani Cammett, April 28
2009 Watson Institute for International Studies, Brown University, ‘Bricks and Mortar Clientelism: The Political Geography of Welfare in Lebanon’, with Melani Cammett, October 14
2008 ‘State Scalar Structures: A Comparative Analysis of US Welfare Spends’, American Sociological Association, Boston, MA.
2008 ‘Re-entry into the Food Stamps Program and Welfare Transitions: An Event History Analysis’, (with Hilary Silver). American Sociological Association Meetings, Boston, MA.
2007 ‘Land-use politics: State and non-state actors in Mumbai, India’, Eastern Sociological Society, Philadelphia, PA.
2006 ‘Metaphors of Ethnographic Practice: Examples from Ethnographies of Science’, American Sociological Association, Montreal, Canada