About me
I am an Assistant Professor of Climate Justice at the University of California, San Diego. I work in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning, and the Critical Gender Studies Program.
Using ethnographic research methods, I critically analyze sustainable development efforts to expand clean energy access and reduce exposures to air pollution in historically underserved communities in India and the United States. In India, my scholarship focuses on clean cooking energy transitions and household air pollution in low income homes which are the targets of development efforts. I have carried out long term fieldwork on these topics in collaboration with community-based organizations in Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh. In the United States, my research focuses on wildfires, smoke, access to electricity, and clean energy transitions of the grid. I have carried out research on these topics in collaboration with Native tribes in California.
Prior to UC San Diego, I taught at Cal Poly Humboldt in the Department of Environmental Studies.
My scholarship contributes to debates in environmental studies, political ecology, critical geography, development studies, feminist science and technology studies, and South Asian studies.
Education:
Ph.D. Yale University, Yale School of the Environment, with a graduate certificate in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (2019)
M.Phil. Yale University, Yale School of the Environment (2015)
M.S. Stanford University, Environmental Engineering and Science (2007)
B.E. Osmania University, Civil Engineering (2005)