Assistant Professor, Departement of Humanities and Social Sciences
Specialization
New Media Studies (identification, everyday use); social geography; sociology of education
Research Interest
I am interested in studying how social groups use new media to identify themselves, and incorporate it in their everyday lives. My dissertation focused on the combination of caste and regional identity for the digital mobilization of Thiyyas. Since then I have started to examine ICT interventions in rural schools in Karnataka. Apart from new media studies I am also interested in studying social geography, and more recently in social and cultural gerontology.
Education
PhD, Sociology, 2008-2014. University of Maryland, College Park (USA) PhD thesis title: Place and Caste Identification: Distanciation and Spatial Imaginaries on a caste-based social network. PhD thesis supervisor: George Ritzer
M.A., Sociology, 2007. University of Hyderabad.
B.A., Economics 2002. Jesus and Mary College, University of Delhi.
September 2014-June 2015: Assistant Professor, Center for Information Technology and Public Policy, International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore.
Summer 2011. Research Assistant to Dr Patricia Hill Collins, University of Maryland, College Park. Project Title: "New Politics of the Community".
Summer 2010. Associate Managing Editor. Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Globalization.
Fall 2008- Fall 2009. Research Assistant to Dr George Ritzer, University of Maryland, College Park.
Spring 2008. Field Research, Centre for Study of Indian Diaspora, University of Hyderabad. Project Title: "Familial Bonds of Indians in the United States: A Study of Visiting Parents".
