MEET THE TEAM
Hemangini Gupta was a Postdoctoral Associate on the project from 2017–2019. She has a PhD in Women's Gender and Sexuality Studies from Emory University and her research interests center on questions of labor and capital, technology, and affective spatial politics.
Kaveri Medappa is a doctoral researcher at the University of Sussex. Her doctoral project studies the experiences of work and life amongst app-based food delivery workers and drivers in Bangalore, India. She has previously worked with community-based organisations in Bangalore and a few other districts in Karnataka. Her interests revolve broadly around technology, labour, land rights, urban change and community mobilisation.
Sachinkumar Rathod completed his MA in Public Policy and Governance from Azim Premji University, Bengaluru. He was also a Urban Fellow at the Indian Institute of Human Settlements (IIHS), 2017-18. He was a consultant for the Tacit Urban Research Network (TURN) project at IIHS, carrying out ethnographic field research with Ola and Uber drivers to understand caste through their life histories. Sachin worked with the Speculative Urbanism project as a research consultant, immersing himself in long-term fieldwork in our peri-urban site to study transformations in land and livelihoods on the periphery of Bengaluru. Overall, his focus has been on understanding caste in the urban context through an interdisciplinary research lens. He is currently in his hometown in Bijapur district, north Karnataka, where he is participating in rural transformation by implementing government policies and programmes for local beneficiaries. Sachin is expanding the vision of Dr. Baba Saheb Bhimrao Ambedker under the banner of International Dhamma Buddha Trust, of which is a founding member.
Deeksha M Rao holds a Master’s degree in Public Policy from National Law School of India University, Bengaluru. Her transition from a pure science background to the world of policy started with a policy-engagement internship with Centre of Study of Science, Technology and Policy. Deeksha works as a Research & Policy Consultant and has collaborated with various organisations like Indian Institute of Human Settlements, Centre for Labour Studies, Centre for the Study of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy, Ludwig Maximillan University and Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore. She joined the Speculative Urbanism Project as a field researcher while pursuing her Master’s degree and went on to work as a Consultant for the duration of the project.
Juwairia has been working on a gamut of issues influencing urbanisation, predominantly from a practice based perspective. Her foci is based on the study of issues pertaining to participatory governance and planning, housing and land rights. She completed her masters in Community Organisation and Development Practice from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, before joining the ‘Speculative Urbanism’ team as Research Associate.
Devika Narayan is a doctoral candidate in sociology at the University of Minnesota. Her work engages economic and industrial sociology, political economy, financialization, and technological change. She has an M.A. and M.phil in sociology from the Delhi School of Economics.