AIIS is pleased to announce the first recipient of the Taraknath Das Memorial Fellowship: Siddharth Menon, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Geography at the University of Wisconsin. Mr. Menon will be carrying out his project in Kochi, “(De)Constructing Concrete: Capital, Nature, and Infrastructures in Urbanizing India.”
Mr. Menon, who received his M.A. in Geography at the University of Colorado, is an economic and urban geographer. His research interests lie at the intersection of the political economy of development, urban studies, political ecology, and science and technology studies (STS). His doctoral dissertation examines how rapid urbanization in India produces uneven development and its impacts on economic growth, everyday social relations, and environmental change. He plans to conduct this research using ethnographic and other qualitative research methods in Kochi/Ernakulam city in the southern Indian State of Kerala. During his fellowship he will conduct interviews and observations with different stakeholders involved in Kochi’s construction industry. These include private real-estate developers, government bureaucrats, building contractors, architects, construction workers, and sand mining companies. He will also collect textual and visual data, like real-estate brochures, housing advertisements, architectural renderings, company portfolios, and government policy documents.
When he is not conducting research, Mr. Menon notes, that, “I like to unwind by closely following the development of football (soccer) in India. Kerala’s Malappuram district, around four hours by road from Kochi, is a footballing hotbed and has produced numerous Indian National Team players over the last few decades. Post-monsoon each year, it hosts a unique version of football, called “Sevens Football”, where the sport is played over a shorter period with seven players on each side on repurposed paddy fields. These games played amongst local clubs are hugely popular and massively attended. I hope to be able to witness a Sevens Football game sometime during my fieldwork in Kerala.”
AIIS is very grateful to the officers and trustees of the Taraknath Das Foundation for the recent donation of the Foundation’s endowment assets, and is committed to carrying out the mission of the Foundation—which is now dissolved–to support the research of Indian graduate students in the U.S. and to promote greater understanding between India and the U.S. The substantial gift is the second largest dollar donation ever made to AIIS.