Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your career to date?
I am an Urban Geographer specialising in infrastructure and everyday politics in the global South.
Prior to joining the University of Liverpool, I was an ESRC Postdoctoral Fellow (2021-2022) at the Department of Geography, Cambridge and Research Associate at Homerton College. I was the Cambridge Trust scholar at Girton College and obtained a PhD and MPhil in Development Studies at the University of Cambridge, followed by a lectureship position at the O.P Jindal Global University in India.
I have also worked as an international development consultant and carried out policy-oriented research with Itad UK, Observer Research Foundation Mumbai, Aga Khan Agency for Habitat, and BRAC Institute of Governance and Development Bangladesh.
What are your research areas?
-Housing, Labour, and Infrastructure
-Digital and Material Geographies with particular reference to socio-technical materials of city making
-Political Ethnography
-Intra-Urban Migration, Mobilities, and Space
My research, ‘The Accommodation City’, explores the emerging forms and processes of temporary accommodation (dormitories, mess housing, work-residence rentals and paying guests/room-sharing) for low-income workers in Dhaka and Mumbai. Using an ethnographic approach, my work seeks to understand how accommodation matter ‘in’ and ‘for’ cities. My doctoral dissertation was awarded ‘Honourable Mention’ for the 2021 Christopher Bayly Best Dissertation Prize by the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland.
Read more about Shreyashi here.