Fellowship supports Ph.D. research on land markets in India

“A tense battle over the highway’s socio-spatial remaking is being waged between developers and small industrialists, who view land along the highway as the last refuge for industrial operations in Bengaluru,” Banerji said. “These contestations are both material — over land and state support — and discursive — over whose imaginary gets to shape the city.”

Originally from New Delhi, Banerji previously worked at the Roosevelt Institute, an economic policy think tank based out of New York City. In that role he managed advocacy programs on the financialization of higher education and the privatization of public goods.

“Growing up in New Delhi, I watched the neighboring suburb of Gurgaon transform from a set of agricultural villages to a global real estate destination almost overnight,” Banerji said. “I’ve been fascinated by the working of land markets and real estate ever since and am tremendously grateful to the SSRC for offering me this opportunity.”

With support from the Mellon Foundation, the fellowship currently funds 60 doctoral students conducting humanities or humanistic social sciences dissertation research on non-U.S. or U.S. Indigenous cultures and societies across the world.

Kelly Merchan is a communications specialist in the Department of Global Development.