.Diya
Mehra is a Senior Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at South
Asian University. Broadly, her interests lie in considering the production
of spaces in South Asia, both historically and in the contemporary. Her writing
has been published in leading academic journals and focuses on 1) Delhi’s urbanization in the 20thcentury,
2) Economic liberalization and its impact on Indian metropolitan cities, and 3)
Contemporary urbanization processes as witnessed and experienced in small
Indian towns and rural hinterlands, including through the new building of
infrastructure, and 4) the construction of ‘wilderness’ and ‘natural
environments’ in colonial India. Previously, she has been visiting
faculty at the School of Planning and Architecture, a postdoctoral fellow at
the Centre de Sciences Humaines (CSH), New Delhi, and a researcher at the
Sarai-CSDS programme. She is currently a part of the editorial collective of Society
and Culture in South Asia. Her teaching focuses on urban studies, including
new forms of planetary urbanisation, qualitative research methods and
ethnographic writing.
Qualifications
Ph.D. in Social Anthropology from University of Texas at Austin , in 2011
M.A in Social Anthropology from University of Texas at Austin , in 2002
Research Interests
The Anthropology of Space, Urban Anthropology, the Anthropology of
Infrastructure
Contemporary Rural and Small-town Transformation, the Production of ‘Nature’
Anthropology and History
Politics, Policy, Governance and Development
The Anthropology of Everyday life
Affect theory
Research Methods
Ethnographic Writing
Recent Publications
Mehra, D., 2024. Shifting ruralities: a case study of higher education, tourism and youth in Banjar sub-district, Kullu, Himachal Pradesh. South Asian History and Culture, pp.1-17.
Jangpura Triptych: The Middle class, Resident Welfare Associations, and Delhi’s Residential Modernity, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 55, Issue No. 51, pp. 57-67, 2020.
Mapping Mediated Politics: Some thoughts on the Indian Case, Studies in Indian Politics, Vol. 6, no 2, pp. 303-309, 2018.
Wealth, Mobility, Accretive Citizenship and Belonging: Why Everyone Comes to Kullu and How they Remain in Marie-Hélène Zérah and Eric Denis (eds): Subaltern Urbanisation in India: An Introduction to the Dynamics of Ordinary Towns: Delhi: Springer, 2017.
What kind of Urban? A Case Study of Kullu, A Small Indian town. Urbanisation, vol.1, no 2, 114-133, 2016.
What has Urban Decentralization meant? A Case Study of Delhi, Pacific Affairs, vol. 86, no 4, pp. 813-835, 2013.
Planning Delhi ca 1936-1959, special issue of South Asia, Beyond the Colonial City: The Urban History of South Asia, 1920-1970, Nikhil Rao and Douglas Haynes (eds), Vol. 36, no 3, pp. 354-374, 2013.
Shelter, Enumeration and Homelessness: Historical and Contemporary Contexts for Delhi’ in Ashish Rajadhyaksha ed. In the Wake of Aadhaar: The Digital Ecosystem of Governance in India, Bangalore: CSCS, 2013.
Protesting Publics in Indian Cities: The 2006 Sealing Drive and Delhi’s Traders. Economic and Political Weekly, vol. XLVII, no 30, July 28, pp. 79-88, 2012.
Urban Spatial Exclusion: A Historical Perspective’ and ‘Caste and Class in Indian Cities: Habitation, Inequality and Segregation’ in Dupont, Zerah, Rewal, and Faetanini (eds.) Urban Policies and the Right to the City in India: Rights, Responsibilities and Citizenship. Delhi: UNESCO and Centre de Sciences Humaines, 2011.
with Lalit Batra. Slum demolition and the Production of Space in Neoliberal Delhi in Mahadevia, Darshini (ed.) Inside Transforming Urban Asia: Processes, Politics and Public Actions. Delhi: Concept, 2008.
