Help Support the NBN on Patreon | Visit New Books Network en Español!

New Books Network

About Sneha Annavarapu

Sneha Annavarapu is Assistant Professor of Urban Studies at Yale-NUS College.

NBN Episodes hosted by Sneha:

South Asian Studies March 24, 2023

Migrants and Machine Politics

How India's Urban Poor Seek Representation and Responsiveness

Adam Michael Auerbach and Tariq Thachil

Hosted by Sneha Annavarapu
How poor migrants shape city politics during urbanization As the Global South rapidly urbanizes, millions of people have migrated from the countryside to urban slums, which now house one billion …
Sociology February 11, 2023

Access to Power

Electricity and the Infrastructural State in Pakistan

Ijlal Naqvi

Hosted by Sneha Annavarapu
Pakistan would desperately like to produce enough electricity, but it usually doesn't. Despite prioritization by successive governments, targeted reforms shaped by international development actors, and featuring prominently in Chinese Belt …
South Asian Studies December 22, 2022

The Dancer's Voice

Performance and Womanhood in Transnational India

Rumya Sree Putcha

Hosted by Sneha Annavarapu
In The Dancer's Voice: Performance and Womanhood in Transnational India (Duke UP, 2022) Rumya Sree Putcha theorizes how the Indian classical dancer performs the complex dynamics of transnational Indian womanhood …
Anthropology November 4, 2022

Lifelines

The Traffic of Trauma

Harris Solomon

Hosted by Sneha Annavarapu
In Lifelines: The Traffic of Trauma (Duke UP, 2022), Harris Solomon takes readers into the trauma ward of one of Mumbai’s busiest public hospitals, narrating the stories of the patients …
Anthropology October 13, 2022

The Right to Be Counted

The Urban Poor and the Politics of Resettlement in Delhi

Sanjeev Routray

Hosted by Sneha Annavarapu
In the last 30 years, Delhi, the capital of India, has displaced over 1.5 million poor people. Resettlement and welfare services are available—but exclusively so, as the city deems much …
South Asian Studies May 31, 2022

Patching Development

Information Politics and Social Change in India

Rajesh Veeraraghavan

Hosted by Sneha Annavarapu
How can development programs deliver benefits to marginalized citizens in ways that expand their rights and freedoms? Political will and good policy design are critical but often insufficient due to …
Anthropology May 30, 2022

Genetically Modified Democracy

Transgenic Crops in Contemporary India

Aniket Aga

Hosted by Sneha Annavarapu
How the debate over genetically modified crops in India is transforming science and politics. Genetically modified or transgenic crops are controversial across the world. Advocates see such crops as crucial …
Anthropology May 18, 2022

Waste Worlds

Inhabiting Kampala's Infrastructures of Disposability

Jacob Doherty

Hosted by Sneha Annavarapu
Uganda's capital, Kampala, is undergoing dramatic urban transformations as its new technocratic government seeks to clean and green the city. Waste Worlds: Inhabiting Kampala's Infrastructures of Disposability (U California Press …
Ethnographic Marginalia May 10, 2022

Studying Borderlands

Talking Ethnography with Dr. Sahana Ghosh

Sahana Ghosh

Hosted by Sneha Annavarapu
How do border policing and violence intersect with gender and sexuality to affect border communities? Today’s guest, Dr. Sahana Ghosh, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the National University of Singapore …
Sociology March 31, 2022

The Politics of Surviving

How Women Navigate Domestic Violence and Its Aftermath

Paige Sweet

Hosted by Sneha Annavarapu
For women who have experienced domestic violence, proving that you are a “good victim” is no longer enough. Victims must also show that they are recovering, as if domestic violence …
Anthropology February 9, 2022

The Moving City

Scenes from the Delhi Metro and the Social Life of Infrastructure

Rashmi Sadana

Hosted by Sneha Annavarapu
The Moving City: Scenes from the Delhi Metro and the Social Life of Infrastructure (U California Press, 2022) is a rich and intimate account of urban transformation told through the …
South Asian Studies January 26, 2022

Bombay Brokers

Lisa Björkman

Hosted by Sneha Annavarapu
A political party worker who produces crowds for electoral rallies. A “prison specialist” who serves other people’s prison sentences in exchange for a large fee. An engineer who is able …
Anthropology January 25, 2022

Taxis Vs. Uber

Courts, Markets and Technology in Buenos Aires

Juan Manuel del Nido

Hosted by Sneha Annavarapu
Uber's April 2016 launch in Buenos Aires plunged the Argentine capital into a frenzied hysteria that engulfed courts of law, taxi drivers, bureaucrats, the press, the general public, and Argentina's …
South Asian Studies December 7, 2021

Brutal Beauty

Aesthetics and Aspiration in the Indian City

Jisha Menon

Hosted by Sneha Annavarapu
Brutal Beauty: Aesthetics and Aspiration in the Indian City (Northwestern UP, 2021) follows a postcolonial city as it transforms into a bustling global metropolis after the liberalization of the Indian economy …
Ethnographic Marginalia November 4, 2021

Doing an Ethnography of Policing

In Conversation with Sarah Brayne

Sarah Brayne

Hosted by Sneha Annavarapu
How has the use of big data and algorithms changed policing and police surveillance? On this episode, we speak with Dr. Sarah Brayne, Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University …
Anthropology September 7, 2021

Crooked Cats

Beastly Encounters in the Anthropocene

Nayanika Mathur

Hosted by Sneha Annavarapu
Big cats—tigers, leopards, and lions—that make prey of humans are commonly known as “man-eaters.” Anthropologist Nayanika Mathur reconceptualizes them as cats that have gone off the straight path to become …
South Asian Studies August 10, 2021

Special Treatment

Student Doctors at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences

Anna Ruddock

Hosted by Sneha Annavarapu
The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) is iconic in the landscape of Indian healthcare. Established in the early years of independence, this enormous public teaching hospital rapidly gained …
Sociology August 10, 2021

At Risk

Indian Sexual Politics and the Global AIDS Response

Gowri Vijayakumar

Hosted by Sneha Annavarapu
In the mid-1990s, experts predicted that India would face the world's biggest AIDS epidemic by 2000. Though a crisis at this scale never fully materialized, global public health institutions, donors …
Sociology July 22, 2021

Chasing World-Class Urbanism

Global Policy Versus Everyday Survival in Buenos Aires

Jacob Lederman

Hosted by Sneha Annavarapu
What makes some cities world class? Increasingly, that designation reflects the use of a toolkit of urban planning practices and policies that circulates around the globe. These strategies—establishing creative districts …
Ethnographic Marginalia July 16, 2021

Violence, Gender, and Policing in Colombia

In Conversation with Dr. Jon Gordon

Jon Gordon

Hosted by Sneha Annavarapu
In today’s interview, we speak with Dr. Jon Gordon, incoming Assistant Professor of Sociology at Appalachian State University, who tells us about his research with criminalized men in an armed …
Sociology May 11, 2021

Capable Women, Incapable States

Negotiating Violence and Rights in India

Poulami Roychowdhury

Hosted by Sneha Annavarapu
How do women claim rights against violence in India and with what consequences? By observing how survivors navigate the Indian criminal justice system, Roychowdhury provides a unique lens on rights …
Anthropology April 13, 2021

Waiting Town

Life in Transit and Mumbai's Other World-Class Histories

Lisa Björkman

Hosted by Sneha Annavarapu
Drawing on a decade of ethnographic research in the Indian city of Mumbai, Waiting Town: Life in Transit and Mumbai's Other World-Class Histories (Association for Asian Studies, 2020) is an …
Ethnographic Marginalia April 8, 2021

New Ethnographies of the Global South

In Conversation with Victoria Reyes and Marco Garrido

Victoria Reyes and Marco Garrido

Hosted by Sneha Annavarapu
How can Sociology be nudged away from its traditional parochialism to embrace empirical work that focuses on the global south? Marco Garrido (assistant professor of sociology at the University of …
Anthropology April 6, 2021

Cartographies of Youth Resistance

Hip-Hop, Punk, and Urban Autonomy in Mexico

Maurice Rafael Magaña

Hosted by Sneha Annavarapu
In Cartographies of Youth Resistance: Hip-Hop, Punk, and Urban Autonomy in Mexico (U California Press, 2020), based on a decade of ethnographic fieldwork, Maurice Magaña considers how urban and migrant …