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Pooja Nayak is a postdoctoral lecturer and researcher in the Chair of Environmental Humanities at the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society. She is a sociocultural anthropologist of environments and modern South Asia. Her research examines “everyday security” in post-extraction zones, at the crossing of biodiversity, state capitalism, and multispecies interrelations.
Her current project, “After Extraction: Work, Value, and the Politics of Everyday Security,” examines how individuals and communities stake claims to industrial livelihoods and diverse ecologies in southern India’s biodiverse Western Ghats mountain range, and their implications for the economy and social mobility.
Pooja earned her PhD in anthropology and South Asia studies at the University of Pennsylvania,USA, and her MA in philosophy at Manipal University,India. She has extensive experience in print and film media, and enjoys experimenting with multimodal forms of expression.
Selected Publications:
- “Inefficiency and the Rhythms of Industrial Time.” Exertions, 25 July 2023. https://saw.americananthro.org/pub/inefficiency-and-rhythms.
- “On Livability in the Sri Lankan Tea Plantation.” Exertions, 10 September 2021. https://saw.americananthro.org/pub/on-livability-inthe-sri-lankan-tea-plantation.