profile

I joined the University of Lausanne in October 2012 as a doctoral candidate on the SNF funded research project "Small cities, urban environments and governance in India" directed by Prof. René Véron. My doctorate was awarded in January 2016. My thesis is entitled "Urban environments and situated institutions: everyday governance in West Bengal". This work employs an actor oriented approach to urban political ecology to explore processes of everyday environmental governance in small cities in West Bengal.

I hold a BA honours in International Studies and Economics at the University of Regina (Canada) in 2010 and an MA in Social Development, awarded with distinction by the University of Sussex (UK) in 2011. My master’s thesis was entitled “Negotiating Space: Life space and livelihoods of the urban poor in India”. This work took a post-modernist approach, drawing on the works of Soja and others, to explore how space is used by and against the poor in their attempts to create social and political networks that support sustainable livelihoods in urban India.

My research interests centre broadly on how socio-economic power imbalances manifest and reproduce with themselves in urban environments. Specifically I am in interested in urban governance, negotiations for access to resources, the politics of solid waste and discourses on poverty and the poor within cities. My past and ongoing research focuses on India, though I am interested in initiating projects elsewhere.