Background

Background

I have over a decade’s worth of experience working at the intersection of technology and society as a researcher, teacher, and a practitioner. My book project on labor, caste and gender in the Information Technology industry in India and Indian diaspora has emerged from years of experience and research. I did pilot research projects with feminist activists in Delhi, urban feminist organizations working in rural India on women’s rights and feminist technologies, rural organizations working on women’s capacity building in solar technologies, and lastly, women in technology groups in the IT industry of India.

Before starting my PhD, I worked in the software consulting industry, a non-profit working with young women in urban communities for technology access, use and decision-making, and, a social start-up that built digital and paper based interventions for menstrual education.

I have a background in computer science from my undergrad where my interest in the intersection of technology and society was cultivated through arts and humanities electives. My undergraduate thesis was consequently a design project that proposed a learning tool in the form of a web app for high school students to explore the constructed and partial nature of history. It used a holistic approach to story-telling of a moment/event in history with technology to renew the way students look at historical events as they learn about them in school.

Work

🎓 President’s Postdoctoral Fellow at University of California, San Diego

  • Historical and ethnographic research towards my book project, Disrupting Merit: Labor, Caste and Gender in Indian Computing

🤳🏽 Research Intern at Microsoft Research India

  • Studied social networks of Indian politicians on Twitter to understand the role of caste in their political reach and influence. (Link) (Link)

👩🏽‍🎓 Teaching and Research Assistant at Cornell University

  • TA for INFO4240 - Designing Technologies for Social Impact and INFO1200 - Information Ethics, Law and Policy in Spring 2018, 2019
  • RA with Prof. Phoebe Sengers and Prof. Steven J. Jackson. I did ethnographic research of rural and urban programs of women’s rights and technology in India.

🩸 Digital Media Specialist at Menstrupedia

  • I worked on designing and developing digital products for increasing menstrual awareness, use data analytics to understand online consumer behavior, and build networks and content with other feminist initiatives.

👩🏽‍🏫 Program Associate at Feminist Approach to Technology

  • I worked with teenage girls from urban settlements in Delhi on kickstarting the in-house Innovation and Idea Lab. I designed a syllabus and a space for feminist critical thinking in the use and design of technologies for addressing local community issues.

👩🏽‍💻 Business Technology Consultant at Deloitte LLP

  • I worked as a SAP business solution developer where I was developing, testing and supporting the Enterprise Resource Planning infrastructure. I later worked with the Sales Enablement team for market research, RFP response writing and client management

Past Affiliations

2021-22 - Mellon Foundation and Social Science Research Council Fellow

2020-21 - Visiting Scholar at Media Der Kooperation

Education