My research focuses on the intersections between rural livelihoods, development and agrarian change in South and Southeast Asia. As a critical geographer, I place emphasis on integrative approaches to understanding patterns of change at the intersections of micro-scale rural livelihoods and the macro-scale political-economic structures and social relations that underlie global capitalism.
Specifically, I am interested in the changing relationships between land, agriculture, rural livelihoods and inequality; the livelihood implications for rural households of modern agricultural global value chains, and the politics of value chain development; the relationship between changing livelihood patterns and food security / food sovereignty; and broader political economy questions about patterns of agrarian accumulation and differentiation and the future of small farmers and agriculture in the region.
I completed my PhD in human geography at the School of Geosciences, University of Sydney in 2016. My PhD thesis, titled Potatoes, Peasants and Livelihoods: A Critical Exploration of Contract Farming and Agrarian Change in Maharashtra, India, explores the implications of contract farming for rural livelihoods and agrarian change in India, based on intensive fieldwork in three rural villages in India in 2013 and 2014. Previously, I was a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the School of Geosciences, University of Sydney (2016-2018) and the University of Sydney's inaugural New Generation Network Scholar for India (2018).