[{"content":" ","date":"25 June 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/","section":"","summary":" ","title":"","type":"page"},{"content":"","date":"25 June 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/california/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"California","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"25 June 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/organic-agriculture/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Organic-Agriculture","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"25 June 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/peer-reviewed/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Peer-Reviewed","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"25 June 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/policy/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Policy","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"25 June 2026","externalUrl":"https://link.springer.com/journal/10460","permalink":"/writing/pub-organic-dpsir/","section":"Writing","summary":"Paper accepted in Agriculture and Human Values uses the DPSIR framework to evaluate pathways that cause fragmentation in the organic agricultural innovation system.","title":"Structural contradictions in organic agriculture: a DPSIR analysis of California production","type":"writing"},{"content":"","date":"25 June 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Tags","type":"tags"},{"content":" Publications # Structural contradictions in organic agriculture: a DPSIR analysis of California production \u0026#8599; \u0026#8598; 25 June 2026 Paper accepted in Agriculture and Human Values uses the DPSIR framework to evaluate pathways that cause fragmentation in the organic agricultural innovation system. Agronomic and systemic challenges in organic agriculture exhibit asymmetric economies of scale \u0026#8599; \u0026#8598; 1 April 2026 Publication in Agricultural Systems finds that on organic farms, agronomic challenges increase with farm size, while systemic challenges may decrease with increasing farm size. Incremental Urbanism and the Circular City: Analyzing Spatial Patterns in Permits, Land Use, and Heritage Regulations \u0026#8599; \u0026#8598; 10 October 2025 Spatial analysis protocol to evaluate the impact of zoning =and historic preservation regulations on patterns of building demolition and reinvestment in Ithaca, New York. Refining large-scale spatial metrics of food access \u0026#8599; \u0026#8598; 1 October 2023 Publication in Applied Geography finds that current food access metrics underestimate rural access and fail to distinguish between physical access and nutritional access. Accelerated consensus in multi-agent networks via memory of local averages \u0026#8599; \u0026#8598; 1 January 2021 Theoretical model demonstrating faster convergence as compared to the paradigmatic DeGroot model. Policy and Technical Reports # Challenges in Organic Agriculture in California: Summary \u0026#8599; \u0026#8598; Summary of a statewide mixed-methods needs assessment of organic agriculture in California to inform institutional priorities of the UC ANR\u0026rsquo;s Organic Agriculture Institute. Swachh Bharat: Industry Engagement \u0026#8599; \u0026#8598; Contributor (Industry Profile Team) on a report examining the scope of private sector engagement in India\u0026rsquo;s Swachh Bharat sanitation initiative, produced by the Centre for Policy Research. Assessing Tourism Infrastructure in Hyderabad, India \u0026#8599; \u0026#8598; Master\u0026rsquo;s thesis examining tourism infrastructure in Hyderabad, India, analyzing gaps in accommodation, transport, and visitor services relative to the city\u0026rsquo;s heritage and cultural assets. Outreach and Science Communication # MyAgLife Podcast: California Organic \u0026#8599; \u0026#8598; 1 July 2024 July 2024 interview with Taylor Chalstrom on the MyAgLife podcast to discuss research findings in California organic CCOF Blog Post \u0026#8599; \u0026#8598; 1 April 2024 Blog post from April 2024 on the California Certified Organic Farmers website summarizing research findings from UC OAI needs assessment Archived Writing # \u0026ldquo;What I really feel is this, that those who cannot find food for their enthusiasm in a knowledge of their country as it actually is, or those who cannot love men because they are men, – who needs must shout and deify their country in order to keep up their excitement, – these love excitement more than their country.\u0026rdquo;\n— Rabindranath Tagore, The Home and the World\nThese posts are from an earlier blog, written between 2014 and 2018 during fieldwork in rural Maharashtra. They are reproduced here as a record of that time.\nOn Conservation, From Melghat 21 October 2018\u0026middot;4 mins Written in 2018, during the public debate around shoot-at-sight orders on Avni, a tigress in central Maharashtra. Yesterday I saw the photo of a man viciously beheaded, his limbs askew, and skin peeled off his back to reveal a hollowed out trunk. A bloody, gouged head was located a distance away. I waited for the instinctive visceral response to such violence but it was curiously muted, perhaps by familiarity, for such photos are circulated with regularity on these particular WhatsApp groups. The title of this group suggests that it is for those interested in wildlife issues in Maharashtra, but members, as is often their wont, tend to accommodate tangential subjects. This man was attacked by an animal in central Maharashtra while guarding his fields. Rarely a week passes without a death or injury credited to animal attacks — tigers, leopards and most commonly, sloth bears. On Drudgery 27 August 2015\u0026middot;5 mins Written in 2015 during a fellowship year in Jawhar, Maharashtra. He sits under the shade of the awning, a neighbour\u0026rsquo;s phone clutched in his hand, idly flicking ants, both real and imaginary, from his dhoti while waiting for his daughter to call. This is one of the few spots in the village where he gets cellular reception and so here he must sit. Occasionally a ball, carelessly thrown by one of the younger fielders, will sidle up and he will throw it back, a reprieve from the monotony. He glances intermittently towards the phone, willing it to ring. He has been here for well over half an hour but he dare not go back in case he misses the call, neither can he call her for the phone has no balance. He leans back and waits. On Healthcare, From Jawhar 18 March 2015\u0026middot;6 mins Written in 2015 during a fellowship year in Jawhar, Maharashtra. Among the many problems that afflict rural India are inefficient healthcare and nutrition. On paper, it boasts a remarkable structure of primary and secondary healthcare centres and hospitals reinforced by auxiliary nurses, ASHA workers and midwives, not to forget various schemes to promote child nutrition. On paper only. Reality witnesses a number of hardworking individuals, fighting to dispense good health in a complicated system of interlinked issues, fuelled by the greed of corruption and the simplicity of ignorance. On Reservation, From Jawhar 11 December 2014\u0026middot;4 mins Written in 2014 during a fellowship year in Jawhar, Maharashtra. Caste-based reservation for higher education and jobs is a much-debated subject when we run dry of other topics of conversation. If people are unacquainted or conversation stilted, whip out a discussion on reservation and watch how people warm up to each other as they bond over the unfairness meted out over the years, over how they missed their true callings thanks to a perverse government machinery that insists on propagating the ridiculous farce that is reservation. Point noted. ","date":"25 June 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/writing/","section":"Writing","summary":"Publications # Structural contradictions in organic agriculture: a DPSIR analysis of California production ↗ ↖ 25 June 2026 Paper accepted in Agriculture and Human Values uses the DPSIR framework to evaluate pathways that cause fragmentation in the organic agricultural innovation system. Agronomic and systemic challenges in organic agriculture exhibit asymmetric economies of scale ↗ ↖ 1 April 2026 Publication in Agricultural Systems finds that on organic farms, agronomic challenges increase with farm size, while systemic challenges may decrease with increasing farm size. Incremental Urbanism and the Circular City: Analyzing Spatial Patterns in Permits, Land Use, and Heritage Regulations ↗ ↖ 10 October 2025 Spatial analysis protocol to evaluate the impact of zoning =and historic preservation regulations on patterns of building demolition and reinvestment in Ithaca, New York. Refining large-scale spatial metrics of food access ↗ ↖ 1 October 2023 Publication in Applied Geography finds that current food access metrics underestimate rural access and fail to distinguish between physical access and nutritional access. Accelerated consensus in multi-agent networks via memory of local averages ↗ ↖ 1 January 2021 Theoretical model demonstrating faster convergence as compared to the paradigmatic DeGroot model. Policy and Technical Reports # Challenges in Organic Agriculture in California: Summary ↗ ↖ Summary of a statewide mixed-methods needs assessment of organic agriculture in California to inform institutional priorities of the UC ANR’s Organic Agriculture Institute. Swachh Bharat: Industry Engagement ↗ ↖ Contributor (Industry Profile Team) on a report examining the scope of private sector engagement in India’s Swachh Bharat sanitation initiative, produced by the Centre for Policy Research. Assessing Tourism Infrastructure in Hyderabad, India ↗ ↖ Master’s thesis examining tourism infrastructure in Hyderabad, India, analyzing gaps in accommodation, transport, and visitor services relative to the city’s heritage and cultural assets. Outreach and Science Communication # MyAgLife Podcast: California Organic ↗ ↖ 1 July 2024 July 2024 interview with Taylor Chalstrom on the MyAgLife podcast to discuss research findings in California organic CCOF Blog Post ↗ ↖ 1 April 2024 Blog post from April 2024 on the California Certified Organic Farmers website summarizing research findings from UC OAI needs assessment Archived Writing # “What I really feel is this, that those who cannot find food for their enthusiasm in a knowledge of their country as it actually is, or those who cannot love men because they are men, – who needs must shout and deify their country in order to keep up their excitement, – these love excitement more than their country.”\n","title":"Writing","type":"writing"},{"content":"","date":"1 April 2026","externalUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agsy.2026.104645","permalink":"/writing/pub-organic-economies-scale/","section":"Writing","summary":"Publication in Agricultural Systems finds that on organic farms, agronomic challenges increase with farm size, while systemic challenges may decrease with increasing farm size.","title":"Agronomic and systemic challenges in organic agriculture exhibit asymmetric economies of scale","type":"writing"},{"content":"","date":"10 October 2025","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/circular-economy/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Circular-Economy","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"10 October 2025","externalUrl":"https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/20/9348","permalink":"/writing/pub-incremental-urbanism/","section":"Writing","summary":"Spatial analysis protocol to evaluate the impact of zoning =and historic preservation regulations on patterns of building demolition and reinvestment in Ithaca, New York.","title":"Incremental Urbanism and the Circular City: Analyzing Spatial Patterns in Permits, Land Use, and Heritage Regulations","type":"writing"},{"content":"","date":"10 October 2025","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/urban-planning/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Urban-Planning","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"1 January 2025","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/ge-crops/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"GE-Crops","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"1 January 2025","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/india/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"India","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"1 January 2025","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/political-economy/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Political-Economy","type":"tags"},{"content":" Vegetable rows in New York Organic farm in Southern California Beekeeping demonstration in Melghat Mobilization of women SHGs Small-scale machinery demonstration Trying (and failing) to farm Installation of a household level biogas plant Gadli-susun (Korku) dance troupe Library books Previous Next The food system - arguably our oldest economic system - is under strain. Even as we have made massive strides in reducing global hunger, we have created economic systems that exclude marginalized communities and food lifecycles that are environmentally damaging. As a social scientist, I work at the intersection of agricultural systems, rural development, and public policy, using mixed methods - surveys, qualitative interviews, and spatial analysis - to understand how institutions, communities, and policies shape agricultural transitions. My fieldwork spans India and California, examining questions around organic and sustainable agricultural policy, the adoption of novel agricultural technologies, and pathways toward more resilient farming economies.\nI prefer not to situate myself within a single discipline; instead to draw upon literatures in urban planning, rural sociology, health geography, and agricultural economics. I am particularly interested in how sustainability transitions distribute risks and opportunities across farming communities - and what conditions enable more equitable outcomes.\nStakeholder Engagement for Climate-Resilient Crops in India India\u0026rsquo;s smallholder farmers face compounding pressures from climate variability, input costs, and market uncertainty. This project, based at the Innovative Genomics Institute at UC Berkeley, examines the institutional and political economy conditions shaping the development and deployment of climate-resilient crops in Indian agriculture — with a particular focus on rice. The work involves facilitating advisory panels that bring together farmers, scientists, policymakers, and practitioners to guide project priorities. Drawing on fieldwork with 40+ participants across the rice value chain, I translate ground-level insights into strategies for scientific development and dissemination. Statewide Needs Assessment for Organic Agriculture in California California\u0026rsquo;s organic sector is the largest in the United States, yet growers face persistent agronomic, economic, and regulatory challenges that limit the sector\u0026rsquo;s growth and resilience. This project conducted a statewide mixed-methods needs assessment on behalf of the UC Organic Agriculture Institute, drawing on 65+ in-depth interviews and surveys with 400+ organic farmers across the state. Findings informed institutional research priorities and contributed to the development of a statewide organic agriculture knowledge network. The project also examined how challenges in organic agriculture exhibit asymmetric economies of scale — with smaller operations facing disproportionately greater burdens — and the structural contradictions embedded in California\u0026rsquo;s organic production system. Social Capital and Resilience in Local Food Networks Economic shocks like the COVID-19 pandemic revealed the fragility of local food supply networks while simultaneously demonstrating the adaptive capacity of farmers embedded in strong social networks. This project examines how access to varied social capital influences farmer adaptations to economic shocks, and how individual choices transmit over wider networks to influence food supply chain resilience. In partnership with Cornell Cooperative Extension, I conducted sequential surveys and interviews with vegetable growers in New York State. Preliminary findings highlight the role of product diversity and informal local partnerships in fostering farm resilience — recasting community solidarity as a determinant of resilience rather than a byproduct of it. Incremental Urbanism and the Circular City Cities accumulate material, regulatory, and spatial histories that shape how they can transition toward more circular economies. This project analyzes spatial patterns in building permits, land use designations, and heritage regulations to examine how incremental urbanism — the gradual, small-scale transformation of the built environment — contributes to circular city frameworks. The work draws on spatial analysis across multiple urban contexts, interrogating how existing regulatory structures enable or constrain circular transitions at the neighborhood scale. Refining Spatial Metrics of Food Access Existing tools for measuring food access — including the USDA\u0026rsquo;s Food Access Research Atlas — suffer from insufficient spatial granularity, binary classifications, and limited integration of health outcome data. This project proposes an alternative methodology using spatial analysis of Google Maps data combined with CDC health outcomes data from the PLACES dataset. A geographically weighted regression model for New York State demonstrates the relationship between food access and obesity rates at the census tract level. ","date":"1 January 2025","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/research/","section":"Research","summary":" Vegetable rows in New York Organic farm in Southern California Beekeeping demonstration in Melghat Mobilization of women SHGs Small-scale machinery demonstration Trying (and failing) to farm Installation of a household level biogas plant Gadli-susun (Korku) dance troupe Library books Previous Next The food system - arguably our oldest economic system - is under strain. Even as we have made massive strides in reducing global hunger, we have created economic systems that exclude marginalized communities and food lifecycles that are environmentally damaging. As a social scientist, I work at the intersection of agricultural systems, rural development, and public policy, using mixed methods - surveys, qualitative interviews, and spatial analysis - to understand how institutions, communities, and policies shape agricultural transitions. My fieldwork spans India and California, examining questions around organic and sustainable agricultural policy, the adoption of novel agricultural technologies, and pathways toward more resilient farming economies.\n","title":"Research","type":"research"},{"content":"India\u0026rsquo;s smallholder farmers face compounding pressures from climate variability, input costs, and market uncertainty. This project, based at the Innovative Genomics Institute at UC Berkeley, examines the institutional and political economy conditions shaping the development and deployment of climate-resilient crops in Indian agriculture — with a particular focus on rice.\nThe work involves facilitating advisory panels that bring together farmers, scientists, policymakers, and practitioners to guide project priorities. Drawing on fieldwork with 40+ participants across the rice value chain, I translate ground-level insights into strategies for scientific development and dissemination.\nOutputs # Seminar on stakeholder engagement for climate-resilient agriculture, Innovative Genomics Institute, UC Berkeley, March 2026 Conference presentations ongoing ","date":"1 January 2025","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/research/igi-climate-crops/","section":"Research","summary":"India’s smallholder farmers face compounding pressures from climate variability, input costs, and market uncertainty. This project, based at the Innovative Genomics Institute at UC Berkeley, examines the institutional and political economy conditions shaping the development and deployment of climate-resilient crops in Indian agriculture — with a particular focus on rice.\nThe work involves facilitating advisory panels that bring together farmers, scientists, policymakers, and practitioners to guide project priorities. Drawing on fieldwork with 40+ participants across the rice value chain, I translate ground-level insights into strategies for scientific development and dissemination.\n","title":"Stakeholder Engagement for Climate-Resilient Crops in India","type":"research"},{"content":"","date":"1 January 2025","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/stakeholder-engagement/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Stakeholder-Engagement","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"1 July 2024","externalUrl":"https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/myaglife/episodes/7524---MyAgLife-Episode-224-Interview-with-Organic-Agriculture-Institutes-Shriya-Rangarajan-on-Top-Concerns-in-California-Organic-Ag-e2lmr0i","permalink":"/writing/out-myaglife-podcast/","section":"Writing","summary":"July 2024 interview with Taylor Chalstrom on the MyAgLife podcast to discuss research findings in California organic","title":"MyAgLife Podcast: California Organic","type":"writing"},{"content":"","date":"1 July 2024","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/outreach/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Outreach","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"1 April 2024","externalUrl":"https://ccof.org/news/preliminary-findings-from-the-uc-oai-statewide-needs-assessment-for-organic-agriculture/","permalink":"/writing/out-ccof-blog/","section":"Writing","summary":"Blog post from April 2024 on the California Certified Organic Farmers website summarizing research findings from UC OAI needs assessment","title":"CCOF Blog Post","type":"writing"},{"content":"","date":"1 January 2024","externalUrl":"https://ucanr.edu","permalink":"/writing/rep-organic-needs-assessment/","section":"Writing","summary":"Summary of a statewide mixed-methods needs assessment of organic agriculture in California to inform institutional priorities of the UC ANR’s Organic Agriculture Institute.","title":"Challenges in Organic Agriculture in California: Summary","type":"writing"},{"content":"","date":"1 January 2024","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/participatory-research/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Participatory-Research","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"1 January 2024","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/report/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Report","type":"tags"},{"content":"California\u0026rsquo;s organic sector is the largest in the United States, yet growers face persistent agronomic, economic, and regulatory challenges that limit the sector\u0026rsquo;s growth and resilience. This project conducted a statewide mixed-methods needs assessment on behalf of the UC Organic Agriculture Institute, drawing on 65+ in-depth interviews and surveys with 400+ organic farmers across the state.\nFindings informed institutional research priorities and contributed to the development of a statewide organic agriculture knowledge network. The project also examined how challenges in organic agriculture exhibit asymmetric economies of scale — with smaller operations facing disproportionately greater burdens — and the structural contradictions embedded in California\u0026rsquo;s organic production system.\nOutputs # Rangarajan, S., Wilson, H., Lubell, M., Lloyd, M. Structural contradictions in organic agriculture: a DPSIR analysis of California production. Agriculture and Human Values (accepted). Rangarajan, S., Wilson, H., \u0026amp; Lubell, M. (2026). Agronomic and systemic challenges in organic agriculture exhibit asymmetric economies of scale. Agricultural Systems, 234, 104645. Link Rangarajan, S., Lubell, M., Muramoto, J., \u0026amp; Wilson, H. (2024). Challenges in organic agriculture in California: Summary of findings from a statewide needs assessment. UC Agriculture and Natural Resources. Link Preliminary findings on the CCOF blog, April 2024 Interview on the MyAgLife podcast, July 2024 Invited panels at the Ecological Farming Association 2024 and Organic Growers Summit 2023 ","date":"1 January 2024","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/research/uc-oai-needs-assessment/","section":"Research","summary":"California’s organic sector is the largest in the United States, yet growers face persistent agronomic, economic, and regulatory challenges that limit the sector’s growth and resilience. This project conducted a statewide mixed-methods needs assessment on behalf of the UC Organic Agriculture Institute, drawing on 65+ in-depth interviews and surveys with 400+ organic farmers across the state.\nFindings informed institutional research priorities and contributed to the development of a statewide organic agriculture knowledge network. The project also examined how challenges in organic agriculture exhibit asymmetric economies of scale — with smaller operations facing disproportionately greater burdens — and the structural contradictions embedded in California’s organic production system.\n","title":"Statewide Needs Assessment for Organic Agriculture in California","type":"research"},{"content":"","date":"1 October 2023","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/food-systems/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Food-Systems","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"1 October 2023","externalUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeog.2023.103084","permalink":"/writing/pub-food-access/","section":"Writing","summary":"Publication in Applied Geography finds that current food access metrics underestimate rural access and fail to distinguish between physical access and nutritional access.","title":"Refining large-scale spatial metrics of food access","type":"writing"},{"content":"","date":"1 October 2023","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/spatial-analysis/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Spatial-Analysis","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"1 June 2022","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/new-york/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"New-York","type":"tags"},{"content":"Economic shocks like the COVID-19 pandemic revealed the fragility of local food supply networks while simultaneously demonstrating the adaptive capacity of farmers embedded in strong social networks. This project examines how access to varied social capital influences farmer adaptations to economic shocks, and how individual choices transmit over wider networks to influence food supply chain resilience.\nIn partnership with Cornell Cooperative Extension, I conducted sequential surveys and interviews with vegetable growers in New York State. Preliminary findings highlight the role of product diversity and informal local partnerships in fostering farm resilience — recasting community solidarity as a determinant of resilience rather than a byproduct of it.\nOutputs # Rangarajan, S., Allred, S., Biasillo, L., Higgins, E., Thurston, M. Influence of social capital on marketing strategies of vegetable growers: Implications for community resilience. (working paper) Northeast SARE Grant Report, 2021 ","date":"1 June 2022","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/research/social-capital-vegetable/","section":"Research","summary":"Economic shocks like the COVID-19 pandemic revealed the fragility of local food supply networks while simultaneously demonstrating the adaptive capacity of farmers embedded in strong social networks. This project examines how access to varied social capital influences farmer adaptations to economic shocks, and how individual choices transmit over wider networks to influence food supply chain resilience.\nIn partnership with Cornell Cooperative Extension, I conducted sequential surveys and interviews with vegetable growers in New York State. Preliminary findings highlight the role of product diversity and informal local partnerships in fostering farm resilience — recasting community solidarity as a determinant of resilience rather than a byproduct of it.\n","title":"Social Capital and Resilience in Local Food Networks","type":"research"},{"content":"","date":"1 June 2022","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/social-capital/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Social-Capital","type":"tags"},{"content":"Cities accumulate material, regulatory, and spatial histories that shape how they can transition toward more circular economies. This project analyzes spatial patterns in building permits, land use designations, and heritage regulations to examine how incremental urbanism — the gradual, small-scale transformation of the built environment — contributes to circular city frameworks.\nThe work draws on spatial analysis across multiple urban contexts, interrogating how existing regulatory structures enable or constrain circular transitions at the neighborhood scale.\nOutputs # Rangarajan, S., Minner, J., Wang, Y., Heisel, F. (2025). Incremental Urbanism and the Circular City: Analyzing Spatial Patterns in Permits, Land Use, and Heritage Regulations. Sustainability, 17. Link ACSP Conference Poster, 2021 ","date":"1 January 2022","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/research/incremental-urbanism/","section":"Research","summary":"Cities accumulate material, regulatory, and spatial histories that shape how they can transition toward more circular economies. This project analyzes spatial patterns in building permits, land use designations, and heritage regulations to examine how incremental urbanism — the gradual, small-scale transformation of the built environment — contributes to circular city frameworks.\nThe work draws on spatial analysis across multiple urban contexts, interrogating how existing regulatory structures enable or constrain circular transitions at the neighborhood scale.\n","title":"Incremental Urbanism and the Circular City","type":"research"},{"content":"","date":"1 January 2021","externalUrl":"https://par.nsf.gov/servlets/purl/10309551","permalink":"/writing/pub-ieee-consensus/","section":"Writing","summary":"Theoretical model demonstrating faster convergence as compared to the paradigmatic DeGroot model.","title":"Accelerated consensus in multi-agent networks via memory of local averages","type":"writing"},{"content":"","date":"1 January 2021","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/health/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Health","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"1 January 2021","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/methodology/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Methodology","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"1 January 2021","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/network-analysis/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Network-Analysis","type":"tags"},{"content":"Existing tools for measuring food access — including the USDA\u0026rsquo;s Food Access Research Atlas — suffer from insufficient spatial granularity, binary classifications, and limited integration of health outcome data. This project proposes an alternative methodology using spatial analysis of Google Maps data combined with CDC health outcomes data from the PLACES dataset.\nA geographically weighted regression model for New York State demonstrates the relationship between food access and obesity rates at the census tract level.\nOutputs # Rangarajan, S. (2023). Refining large-scale spatial metrics of food access. Applied Geography, 159, 103084. Link ","date":"1 January 2021","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/research/food-access-metrics/","section":"Research","summary":"Existing tools for measuring food access — including the USDA’s Food Access Research Atlas — suffer from insufficient spatial granularity, binary classifications, and limited integration of health outcome data. This project proposes an alternative methodology using spatial analysis of Google Maps data combined with CDC health outcomes data from the PLACES dataset.\nA geographically weighted regression model for New York State demonstrates the relationship between food access and obesity rates at the census tract level.\n","title":"Refining Spatial Metrics of Food Access","type":"research"},{"content":"","date":"21 October 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/blog/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Blog","type":"tags"},{"content":"Written in 2018, during the public debate around shoot-at-sight orders on Avni, a tigress in central Maharashtra.\nYesterday I saw the photo of a man viciously beheaded, his limbs askew, and skin peeled off his back to reveal a hollowed out trunk. A bloody, gouged head was located a distance away. I waited for the instinctive visceral response to such violence but it was curiously muted, perhaps by familiarity, for such photos are circulated with regularity on these particular WhatsApp groups. The title of this group suggests that it is for those interested in wildlife issues in Maharashtra, but members, as is often their wont, tend to accommodate tangential subjects. This man was attacked by an animal in central Maharashtra while guarding his fields. Rarely a week passes without a death or injury credited to animal attacks — tigers, leopards and most commonly, sloth bears.\nOf late, every time I see such photos, I am reminded of the ongoing discourse on wildlife protection and forest rights, intensified in recent weeks by the agitation surrounding shoot-at-sight orders on a rumoured man-eating tigress in central Maharashtra. I sympathize with the conservationists. Habitats have diminished, tigers are endangered: 2,500 tigers versus 7 billion humans doesn\u0026rsquo;t seem a fair comparison in the least, but there are nuances to the story that I find absent in a lot of what\u0026rsquo;s being said. I base this on some of my experiences in Harisal, a village located in the buffer zone of the Melghat Tiger Reserve.\nA forest officer once told me that sloth bears have been forced into increased nocturnality from their typical habit to escape human activity and encroachment on their habitat. One of the early pieces of advice I was given in Harisal from a villager was never to turn your back on an approaching sloth bear for it gives them opportunity to claw you from behind and that particular position offers more scope for lasting damage. Never had I considered safety from sloth bears a matter of privilege.\nWhile animal encounters in Harisal are not commonplace, they do occur. The mother of a good friend, Jitendra Shanware, related an incident that occurred in the fields she was guarding at night. She woke to barking dogs alerting her to a bear standing mere metres from her. She sets alight the head of a stick and warded off the bear with the flame. Her dog unfortunately died in the encounter. Another, Janrao Mavaskar, told me that he would rather face a tiger than a bear for where the tiger is unlikely to attack unless provoked, a bear feels no such compunction.\nAnd yet, what choice have they but to accept these hazards as a part of their day-to-day existence. For if they don\u0026rsquo;t guard their fields, their crops will be ravaged by wild pigs, various deer and the occasional carnivore. The government eases this transaction to the extent possible: the Forest Department provides monetary compensation for destruction by wild animals and offers large subsidies on fencing. But for chain-link fencing worth 50,000 rupees, farmers were asked to contribute 7,500 rupees each. After six months and a regular harvest, only twelve of the hundred farmers in the village were able to scrape together that sum. This is what poverty looks like. So what choice have they but to arm themselves with fire, sticks, stones on catapults, and loyal dogs?\nAs human activity has increased, the forest has been pushed back, encroaching on the territories of wildlife still further. In summers, the forest is reduced to an ashen landscape with little respite and animals roam further afield in search of water. And yet, I know locals to accept and protect this ecosystem. I have witnessed the gentle capture and release into the wild of at least four venomous snakes; deep knowledge they carry of birds and flowers and fruit; their pride in indigenous customs that is being rapidly eroded by the authority of the \u0026ldquo;mainstream.\u0026rdquo;\nChange petitions and activist groups have widely vilified the Maharashtra State Forest Department. Yet I must ask myself why a forest department which tracks daily on camera and foot the pugmarks of individual animals; which organizes teams to catch poachers late into the night; which permanently stations guards in isolated lookouts in the midst of dense forest; which artificially replenishes waterholes deep into the jungle to keep animals alive in summers — would willfully recommend the shooting of an animal that they are trying their hardest to protect.\nDo I recommend man-eating tigers or any other animal be killed? No, for I have neither the expertise nor the conviction to make that statement. I largely abhor the anthropocentric views that we espouse, but can\u0026rsquo;t help but feel that the narrative on human-wildlife interactions is unidimensional. Even as I reach out to sign petitions asking them to spare the tigress, a little niggle stops me, because I\u0026rsquo;m aware that we are sitting in the safety of our urban homes, offering vulnerable populations as bait.\n","date":"21 October 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/writing/blog-conservation-melghat/","section":"Writing","summary":"Written in 2018, during the public debate around shoot-at-sight orders on Avni, a tigress in central Maharashtra.\nYesterday I saw the photo of a man viciously beheaded, his limbs askew, and skin peeled off his back to reveal a hollowed out trunk. A bloody, gouged head was located a distance away. I waited for the instinctive visceral response to such violence but it was curiously muted, perhaps by familiarity, for such photos are circulated with regularity on these particular WhatsApp groups. The title of this group suggests that it is for those interested in wildlife issues in Maharashtra, but members, as is often their wont, tend to accommodate tangential subjects. This man was attacked by an animal in central Maharashtra while guarding his fields. Rarely a week passes without a death or injury credited to animal attacks — tigers, leopards and most commonly, sloth bears.\n","title":"On Conservation, From Melghat","type":"writing"},{"content":"","date":"21 October 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/rural-development/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Rural-Development","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"21 October 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/wildlife/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Wildlife","type":"tags"},{"content":"Written in 2015 during a fellowship year in Jawhar, Maharashtra.\nHe sits under the shade of the awning, a neighbour\u0026rsquo;s phone clutched in his hand, idly flicking ants, both real and imaginary, from his dhoti while waiting for his daughter to call. This is one of the few spots in the village where he gets cellular reception and so here he must sit. Occasionally a ball, carelessly thrown by one of the younger fielders, will sidle up and he will throw it back, a reprieve from the monotony. He glances intermittently towards the phone, willing it to ring. He has been here for well over half an hour but he dare not go back in case he misses the call, neither can he call her for the phone has no balance. He leans back and waits.\nShe wakes up at 6 a.m. like clockwork and reaches for the handa of water, scraping the bottom as she gathers what remains in her lota. She splashes half of it over her face, leaving the other half for her daughter who should be up by now. She calls out and her ten year old daughter emerges. Between them they distribute seven empty handas and stride briskly downhill towards the wells, calling out greetings to the steady stream of women walking alongside.\nTwenty minutes later she finds herself balancing precariously atop the slippery, moss-covered ledge with toes extending over the green waters beneath. Bending over at the waist, she swings a thick rope and bucket setup into the water with a violence belied by the frail body, drawing up water that she transfers to the vessel her daughter is holding. Again and again, till each of the seven is filled. She stacks two of the smaller handas on her daughter\u0026rsquo;s head, gives her a third to balance on her yet immature hip and takes up the remaining herself. She slowly trudges uphill now, feeling acutely the sting of stones on her bare feet and the thirty kilograms weighing on her head.\nThe bus should be any minute now, he is told by his still positive fellow traveler. He has been hearing this for the past hour and his patience is now wearing thin. With impressive impassivity, the man besides him extends a hand to pluck another ripe ber from the low hanging branch overhead. They hear a distinct groan in the distance and a red state transport bus slowly makes its way towards them. No wonder it\u0026rsquo;s late for it is bursting at its seams — mostly children on their way to school — and the burdens seem to labour the far obsolete engine, which can barely compete with passing cattle. Slinging his bag around his body, he clambers onto the already crowded ladder, distributing part of his weight onto the window grill just within reach.\nStudents sit with vacant expressions, fanning their sweaty faces with the textbooks they are supposed to be studying. Their teacher has long given up trying to catch their attention and herself sits in a corner, waiting for the designated hour to toll. Should the current come back, complete the next five questions as homework, she says in parting. None of the students deign to respond, secure in the knowledge that it won\u0026rsquo;t.\nCome 8 p.m. and they are ensconced in thin sheets and a dense blackness around them which is of little defence against the angry swarms of mosquitoes. Sleep eludes them and they end up talking into the silence, reliving old memories, as they have countless times before, till they drift off.\nDrudgery, they call it. All those development reports and policy reviews and research papers which talk about challenges in rural India. It is drudgery borne of inadequate and unreliable infrastructure which leaves people decades behind their time. Poverty and a lack of economic opportunity are most certainly challenges which limit rural people but these systemic shortcomings play an equal part in preventing them from improving their situation. Where most people in urban India take for granted good telecom service or piped water, people here struggle on a day to day basis.\nWhat\u0026rsquo;s worse is that they almost never recognize it to be a struggle. More often than not, these activities are so deeply entrenched in their routine that they neither know nor demand better. What an outsider sees as needless frustration manifests as bone-deep, unmistakable apathy, even reluctant acceptance that try as you might, you cannot shake from them.\nDrunk men lounge around until after midday without an apparent care in the world. They are skilled artisans who can weave magic should they choose but with none to buy their products, why bother making any? People who, through sheer dint of effort, claw their way through are forsaken time and again by a system which is yet to recognize its failings. Barely literate women who make papad and laddoos and who eagerly, perhaps desperately, brandish their packets for sale are told by polished men in polished suits that they ought to make a website and send them an email. How do those men never see their blank stares?\nSo they choose instead to sit upon their doorsteps and watch the world go by. After a point, you are lulled into a void of nothingness and absolute pointlessness punctuated with events that commemorate the continuity of life — a birth, a wedding, a death — that might otherwise be forgotten in the sameness of every day.\nAll my life I told myself I was living in a bubble. Dubai wasn\u0026rsquo;t reality. It was too shiny, too fake, a mirage of malls and glitz and absurd ski resorts sprung in the middle of a desert. Then I come to Jawhar and now I\u0026rsquo;m no longer sure who lives in the bubble.\n","date":"27 August 2015","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/writing/blog-drudgery/","section":"Writing","summary":"Written in 2015 during a fellowship year in Jawhar, Maharashtra.\nHe sits under the shade of the awning, a neighbour’s phone clutched in his hand, idly flicking ants, both real and imaginary, from his dhoti while waiting for his daughter to call. This is one of the few spots in the village where he gets cellular reception and so here he must sit. Occasionally a ball, carelessly thrown by one of the younger fielders, will sidle up and he will throw it back, a reprieve from the monotony. He glances intermittently towards the phone, willing it to ring. He has been here for well over half an hour but he dare not go back in case he misses the call, neither can he call her for the phone has no balance. He leans back and waits.\n","title":"On Drudgery","type":"writing"},{"content":"","date":"18 March 2015","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/healthcare/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Healthcare","type":"tags"},{"content":"Written in 2015 during a fellowship year in Jawhar, Maharashtra.\nAmong the many problems that afflict rural India are inefficient healthcare and nutrition. On paper, it boasts a remarkable structure of primary and secondary healthcare centres and hospitals reinforced by auxiliary nurses, ASHA workers and midwives, not to forget various schemes to promote child nutrition. On paper only. Reality witnesses a number of hardworking individuals, fighting to dispense good health in a complicated system of interlinked issues, fuelled by the greed of corruption and the simplicity of ignorance.\nNutritional deficiencies start young\nAnganwadis and primary schools carry a free midday meal scheme to introduce nutrition young, with kids being assured the quintessential balanced diet — rice, chapattis, dal, fruits and vegetables and milk — yet, kids are most often doled out a rice and dal khichdi sans other promised elements. Little wonder that malnutrition is rampant and is often manifest in frail, underweight and sometimes stunted bodies. Ration shops have experienced similar cuts in recent years. Where earlier, commodities like oil and sugar were also available subsidized, the shops now furnish only bare necessities like rice, wheat and dal (of steadily decreasing quality), necessitating the purchase of other supplies. With practically non-existent disposable incomes, most do without, perpetuating their circumstance.\nYet, it would be harsh to dump blame entirely on the government machinery since it appears that nutritional deficiencies are not sorely for a lack of trying. For example, teenage girls are distributed free iron supplements to combat the severe anaemia seemingly pervasive in this population, with monthly follow-ups and educational sessions to ensure that they are eaten. Dedicated nevertheless despondent nurses tell me that it\u0026rsquo;s a losing battle with girls more often than not deviously disposing the tablets and bringing back empty wrappers as proof of consumption. Short of force feeding them, what are they to do?\nAnd then puberty hits\nSo if the shock of dealing with menstruation were not enough, most girls don\u0026rsquo;t have any clue as to what is actually happening to their bodies, nor the resources to find out. By the time puberty hits, they are out of primary school, away from home in ashram schools with no one to consult. One rather flustered principal tells me that his female students come to him completely terrified that there are differences in the extent to which they bleed as compared to their peers, in a conversation that I gather was not very comfortable all around. The only thing that seems to scare them more, is the matron they are left in charge of, who herself barely understands menstruation but is tight-fisted in her allocation of sanitary napkins.\nHaving said that, these children do receive comparatively better healthcare as compared to the average person living here. Annual check-ups complete with vaccinations, pregnancy tests, free medicines and supplements take place; what doesn\u0026rsquo;t take place is a conversation on the repercussions of unprotected sex. Thus, although there is no coercion and partners are often of their own choosing, for fear of pregnancy, a lot of parents choose to get their children married young before they become sexually active, and in effect prematurely terminating their education.\nStructured healthcare doesn\u0026rsquo;t fare much better\nAs part of a preliminary resource mapping that we were conducting in a village, we invited discussion on the major issues they were facing. Government-bashing ensued. The salient points related to healthcare that emerged were that they were dissatisfied with the primary healthcare centre because the doctor speaks in Hindi and with their limited knowledge of the language they are not able to explain their conditions effectively; moreover, doctors and nurses refuse to prescribe medicines for their various ailments; when they do prescribe, they hand out less than that on the prescription, in all probability siphoning off the drugs elsewhere.\nFurther, the nurse whose duty it is to periodically visit each house and check on every person for illness prior to signing off outside the door, is a slacker. She signs off every month never having visited the houses at all. This becomes particularly irksome when women are expecting and go into labour at night. Requests to said nurse or ASHA worker for transport to the block hospital in Jawhar are met with instructions to wait until morning. \u0026ldquo;Delivery subah tak rukega kya?\u0026rdquo; they demand. Ultimately, they are forced to take private transport to the hospital costing them upward of Rs. 500, a sum they can scarcely afford and which by right, they shouldn\u0026rsquo;t have to.\nHospital workers have a different story to tell. Severely short of manpower and resources — primary healthcare centres don\u0026rsquo;t even have a water supply, let alone a disinfected one — they are struggling to meet the demands placed on them. Medicines from the government don\u0026rsquo;t come on time and when they do, are substantially less than that required. ASHA workers assigned to villages are not permitted to prescribe beyond the most basic of medicines and that too only for a maintenance period until the patient can arrange for a visit to the PHC. Doctors in turn express frustration that patients either come in for every little twitch and scratch that doesn\u0026rsquo;t require treatment at all, or they experiment with therapies offered by local vaids (mostly quacks) and don\u0026rsquo;t come in till their illness has progressed significantly.\nIs it ignorance which clouds judgement?\nAn NGO colleague has an interesting theory as to the cause of the latter. He has observed that people place greater faith in the local vaids because they attempt to foretell their patients\u0026rsquo; conditions and recommend suitable treatment, which surely suggests greater prowess than a doctor, who despite years of training still asks you for symptoms prior to suggesting treatment.\nThere is raging frustration within the healthcare system all around which is immediately palpable when you talk to anyone involved, but nobody seems to have a readily available solution. Off the bat, it seems to me that there is a communication gap and a lack of accountability that is exacerbating the problem. While the latter is something I have resigned myself to, there appears to be scope for intervention in the former: perhaps, better information dissemination to youth, particularly girls, or a platform for more reasonable dialogue between doctor, nurse and patient? Maybe a system of accountability for nurse duties and medicine dispensing that relies on checks by the community itself? Then again, all that\u0026rsquo;s probably just wishful thinking.\n","date":"18 March 2015","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/writing/blog-healthcare-jawhar/","section":"Writing","summary":"Written in 2015 during a fellowship year in Jawhar, Maharashtra.\nAmong the many problems that afflict rural India are inefficient healthcare and nutrition. On paper, it boasts a remarkable structure of primary and secondary healthcare centres and hospitals reinforced by auxiliary nurses, ASHA workers and midwives, not to forget various schemes to promote child nutrition. On paper only. Reality witnesses a number of hardworking individuals, fighting to dispense good health in a complicated system of interlinked issues, fuelled by the greed of corruption and the simplicity of ignorance.\n","title":"On Healthcare, From Jawhar","type":"writing"},{"content":"","date":"1 January 2015","externalUrl":"https://cprindia.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Swachh-Bharat_Industry-Enagagement-%E2%80%93-Scope-and-Example.pdf","permalink":"/writing/rep-cprindia/","section":"Writing","summary":"Contributor (Industry Profile Team) on a report examining the scope of private sector engagement in India’s Swachh Bharat sanitation initiative, produced by the Centre for Policy Research.","title":"Swachh Bharat: Industry Engagement","type":"writing"},{"content":"","date":"11 December 2014","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/education/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Education","type":"tags"},{"content":"Written in 2014 during a fellowship year in Jawhar, Maharashtra.\nCaste-based reservation for higher education and jobs is a much-debated subject when we run dry of other topics of conversation. If people are unacquainted or conversation stilted, whip out a discussion on reservation and watch how people warm up to each other as they bond over the unfairness meted out over the years, over how they missed their true callings thanks to a perverse government machinery that insists on propagating the ridiculous farce that is reservation. Point noted.\nI have been one of those people — argued on both sides of the fence — however, it\u0026rsquo;s only after coming to Jawhar, Maharashtra, an area with a 99 percent tribal population, that I better understand the import of such policy.\nLanguage is a problem\n\u0026ldquo;Teach children in their local language, they will learn better,\u0026rdquo; they said. They got that right. \u0026ldquo;English is the medium for communication world-over so introduce it from the very beginning,\u0026rdquo; they said. They got that right too. Nonetheless, aside from the typical singsong \u0026lsquo;Good morning madam\u0026rsquo; that I am greeted with every time I enter a classroom, I find I am unable to hold even the most basic of conversations with students in English. Actually, neither am I able to hold one with the English teacher.\nWhat authorities did not anticipate is that they wouldn\u0026rsquo;t find teaching staff to carry out these schemes. Adivasi Marathi is a dialect that is different from the standard Marathi spoken elsewhere, yet teaching occurs in the Marathi spoken in cities. Even if they should want to, where from will they find qualified teachers from the local community who can teach in this dialect? English teachers are often graduates in every subject other than English because the government is unable to find any other. Little surprise therefore that when asked about the difficulties they face in studying, the first issue almost every student mentions is trouble with English.\nLack of qualified staff is not limited to language teachers alone\nA student in the 12th standard told me that his stream was overly crowded because they had been unable to find a teacher for maths until very late in the year while in the 11th, forcing most students to switch from maths to biology. A number of them had apparently wanted to pursue engineering after school, which they have now had to give up on. Officials at the education departments of the Panchayat Samiti and Tribal Development Program are unanimous in their assessment: nobody wants to come here.\nDespite introducing a moderately successful scheme that allows qualified teachers to be hired without the need for qualifying exams and selection, schools are tremendously short on teaching staff, particularly for primary education. Most schools for the 1st to 4th standard have just two teachers, each leading two different grades simultaneously.\nOther schemes aimed at promoting education cross the line from successful to unsuccessful and then downright absurd. One of these masterpieces disallows schools from failing any student at all up till the 8th standard. What results is a joke of an examination system, untaught children getting pushed into subsequent classes as a matter of routine and finally a not-very-competent bunch of students being saddled on secondary teachers who are miraculously expected to bring them up to speed with everything they missed in the previous twelve to fifteen years.\nThere is very little motivation to study\nAfter all, why would they? The better colleges are English medium; the best they can hope for is a semi-decent Marathi medium college, which in fact is a distant dream. Advanced degrees are nominal and many fall back on vocational skills or farming following graduation. Where can they turn to for information on their options after school? I can\u0026rsquo;t imagine life without the internet or knowledgeable family friends, but they have to make do.\nHome environments are not particularly conducive to learning either. Between their own limited opportunities and long hours in the field, parents don\u0026rsquo;t have the time or inclination to support the scholastic endeavours of their kids. Educational authorities provide students with everything from free education, books and uniforms to toiletries, meals and regular medical check-ups. However, except for a select few, most schools lack good laboratory facilities, computer facilities, libraries and other educational resources that would bring them on par with urban schools. How then are these students supposed to compete with their urban counterparts?\nWhich brings me back to reservation\nTo the proponents of income-based reservation, their disadvantages are not simply a matter of finances but also their situations and tribal background. It\u0026rsquo;s all very well for us to sit in our ivory towers and complain about the lack of investment in primary education but a lot more difficult to implement. I am not saying the reservation system is perfect either in structure or reach, far from it, but given the shortcomings in the system, these children need every reinforcement available to them and more.\n","date":"11 December 2014","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/writing/blog-reservation-jawhar/","section":"Writing","summary":"Written in 2014 during a fellowship year in Jawhar, Maharashtra.\nCaste-based reservation for higher education and jobs is a much-debated subject when we run dry of other topics of conversation. If people are unacquainted or conversation stilted, whip out a discussion on reservation and watch how people warm up to each other as they bond over the unfairness meted out over the years, over how they missed their true callings thanks to a perverse government machinery that insists on propagating the ridiculous farce that is reservation. Point noted.\n","title":"On Reservation, From Jawhar","type":"writing"},{"content":"","date":"1 January 2014","externalUrl":"https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/handle/2142/55221","permalink":"/writing/rep-hyd-tourism/","section":"Writing","summary":"Master’s thesis examining tourism infrastructure in Hyderabad, India, analyzing gaps in accommodation, transport, and visitor services relative to the city’s heritage and cultural assets.","title":"Assessing Tourism Infrastructure in Hyderabad, India","type":"writing"},{"content":" Hi, I\u0026rsquo;m Shriya # I am a social scientist with a PhD in Regional Science from Cornell University.\nMy work sits at the intersections of food and agricultural systems, rural and community development, and public policy. I study questions around organic and sustainable agricultural policy, adoption of novel agricultural technologies, and pathways toward more equitable and resilient farming economies.\nI am also interested in climate resilience and the Circular Economy, particularly in agri-food systems and construction. Across these areas, I am interested in how institutions and communities influence development trajectories.\nI have worked also in governance consulting on projects related to rural development and education reform in India.\nTeaching and mentorship # Teaching and mentorship are important to me too! I have taught and assisted undergraduate and graduate courses in quantitative methods, data analysis, GIS, and urban theory. My most rewarding teaching experience, however, was spending a year teaching in a prison education program.\nOther interests # Here is a list of other things that I think about frequently, borderline obsessively:\nScience communication — A lot of brilliant research disappears into the ether. With a little creativity, we can do so much better! Games and puzzles — I enjoy playing. I enjoy building. Social justice and public ethics — as it relates to my research, gender equality, and the carceral state. Yes, we need data-driven, evidence-based policy. We also need to reflect on the role of ethics in our research and policy. Research and higher education capacity-building in developing countries. ","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/about/","section":"","summary":" Hi, I’m Shriya # I am a social scientist with a PhD in Regional Science from Cornell University.\nMy work sits at the intersections of food and agricultural systems, rural and community development, and public policy. I study questions around organic and sustainable agricultural policy, adoption of novel agricultural technologies, and pathways toward more equitable and resilient farming economies.\n","title":"About","type":"page"},{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/authors/","section":"Authors","summary":"","title":"Authors","type":"authors"},{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/categories/","section":"Categories","summary":"","title":"Categories","type":"categories"},{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/series/","section":"Series","summary":"","title":"Series","type":"series"},{"content":" Teaching Philosophy # My approach to teaching is shaped by a simple conviction: I want to train practitioners who can appreciate the intricacies of the world outside the classroom and engage with it in imaginative and meaningful ways. An experience I carry with me is from a student in an introductory world geography course who took a lesson on Central Asia and applied it analytically to a photograph in his textbook — pointing out Soviet architecture alongside Coca-Cola and LG logos as evidence of multiple developmental pressures. That moment of a student making independent connections is what I am always working toward.\nComing from an interdisciplinary background, I believe in blurring disciplinary boundaries — leaving students free to pursue solutions driven by the nature of the problem rather than the nature of the discipline. In discussion, I frequently pose two questions: what are the assumptions underlying this work, and what is missing? I endeavor to create an inclusive classroom where contrary opinions are not merely tolerated but actively encouraged, because it is only through such debate that we push intellectual boundaries and engage with the inherent complexities of the world.\nAs Instructor # GEOG 101: World Geography\nCornell Prison Education Program, Cayuga Community College · Fall 2021, Spring 2022\nAn introductory course on world geography for incarcerated students earning an associate\u0026rsquo;s degree through Cornell\u0026rsquo;s Prison Education Program. The course covered major geographic regions, contemporary global challenges, and the political, economic, and cultural forces shaping them. Assessment included two prelims, a final exam, and five perspective pieces — short opinion essays in a journalistic style responding to prompts drawn from current events and course themes.\nSyllabus · Perspective Pieces · Prelims\nAs Teaching Assistant # Cornell University\nCOMM 3200: New Media and Society · Spring 2022 STS 3011: Life Sciences and Society · Fall 2021 CRP 5250: Introduction to Planning Methods · Spring 2019, Spring 2021 CRP 5130: Introduction to Planning Practice and History · Fall 2020 CRP 6330: Methods of Regional Science and Planning II · Spring 2020 CRP 5190: Urban Theory · Fall 2019 University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign\nUP 316: Planning Analysis · Spring 2013 MCB 251: Experimental Techniques in Molecular Biology · Fall 2013 Workshops and Service # Center for Teaching Innovation Graduate Teaching Fellow, Cornell University, 2021–22. Facilitated the GET SET workshop series for graduate teaching assistants across the university. Diversity and Inclusion Analysis, Global Planning Education Committee, Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning, 2021. ","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/teaching/","section":"","summary":"Teaching Philosophy # My approach to teaching is shaped by a simple conviction: I want to train practitioners who can appreciate the intricacies of the world outside the classroom and engage with it in imaginative and meaningful ways. An experience I carry with me is from a student in an introductory world geography course who took a lesson on Central Asia and applied it analytically to a photograph in his textbook — pointing out Soviet architecture alongside Coca-Cola and LG logos as evidence of multiple developmental pressures. That moment of a student making independent connections is what I am always working toward.\n","title":"Teaching","type":"page"}]