University of California, Los Angeles
University of California, Los Angeles
Scripps College
My research is concerned with the concept of livability as a sociopolitical, ecological, and ethical category. I am particularly interested in how changing food networks figure as sites for diverse evaluations of wellbeing. My current book project examines these themes in the context of Bengaluru (Bangalore), India. As the heart of India’s booming information technology industry, Bengaluru offers insight into how shifting global economies and rapid urban development affect regional food networks. I explore these shifts to capture the changing meanings and practices of livability. Whether debating the arrival of yet another transnational restaurant chain, or denouncing farmers' use of urban wastewater to irrigate crops, Bengaluru residents' engagements with shifting food networks reflect and produce an ambivalence about urban transformation, who benefits, and what might be lost in the meantime.
Clarkson University Outstanding New Teacher Award (2020)
City and Society Best Paper Award (2019)
Dissertation Year Fellowship, UCLA (2017)
Society for Urban, National, and Transnational/Global Anthropology (SUNTA) Graduate Paper Prize (2016)
Charles E. and Sue K. Young Graduate Student Award for exemplary academic achievement, research, and service to the campus and community, UCLA (2016)
Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship, U.S. Department of Education (2014)
Language Fellowship, U.S. Department of Education, to attend American Institute of Indian Studies (AIIS) Kannada Language Program (2014)
International Institute Fieldwork Fellowship, UCLA (2014)
Asia Institute Graduate Fellowship Award, UCLA (2014)
American Institute of Indian Studies (AIIS) Hindi Summer Language Program Fellowship (2012)
2021. “Putting the Garden Back: Cultivating Life through Urban Gardening in India.” In Death and Life of Nature in Asian Cities. 3rd volume in the Ecologies of Urbanism series. A. Rademacher and K. Sivaramakrishnan, eds. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.
2021. “Positionality and the Transformative Potential of Discomfort.” Forum: Best Paper of 2019 Award Winner, Camille Frazier's “Urban Heat: Rising Temperatures as Critique in India's Air Conditioned City.” City and Society. https://doi.org/10.1111/ciso.12386
2021. “Tasting Independence.” Frazier, Camille and Akhil Gupta. 2021. Anthropology News website, January 13, 2021. https://doi.org/10.14506/AN.1574
2019. "Urban Heat: Rising Temperatures as Critique in India's Air-Conditioned City." City and Society 31(3): 44-461. DOI: 10.1111/ciso.12228
2018. Co-authored with Allison Carruth. "Wild Cuisines, Risky Futures: Reimagining What We Consider Edible Species." KCET, August 21. https://www.kcet.org/food-living/wild-cuisines-risky-futures-reimagining-what-we-consider-edible-species-0
2018. "Grow what you eat, eat what you grow": urban agriculture as middle class intervention in India." Journal of Political Ecology vol. 25, pp. 221-238.
2017. "Teaching with Hope: An Introduction." Teaching Tools, Cultural Anthropology website, January 23. https://culanth.org/fieldsights/1061-teaching-with-hope-an-introduction
2017. “Work and Nonwork in Pericapitalist Sites.” Dialogues, Cultural Anthropology website, June 8. https://culanth.org/fieldsights/work-and-nonwork-in-pericapitalist-sites
2017. "Teaching with Hope: Anand Pandian on Cultivating Possibility in the Classroom.” Teaching Tools, Cultural Anthropology website, June 23. https://culanth.org/fieldsights/1157-teaching-with-hope-anand-pandian-on-cultivating-possibility-in-the-classroom
2017. “Rising Temperatures.” Anthropology News website, July 28. doi: 10.1111/AN.521