New Books Network

About Sneha Annavarapu

Sneha Annavarapu is Assistant Professor of Urban Studies at Yale-NUS College. To know more about Sneha's work, please visit www.snehanna.com

NBN Episodes hosted by Sneha:

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 …
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 …
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 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 …
South Asian Studies March 15, 2021

A Social Theory of Corruption

Notes from the Indian Subcontinent

Sudhir Chella Rajan

Hosted by Sneha Annavarapu
In contemporary policy discourse, the notion of corruption is highly constricted, understood just as the pursuit of private gain while fulfilling a public duty. Its paradigmatic manifestations are bribery and …
Ethnographic Marginalia February 26, 2021

Political Life in the Wake of the Plantation

Sovereignty, Witnessing, Repair

Deborah A. Thomas

Hosted by Sneha Annavarapu
How can ethnographers use multimedia presentations of their work to reach new audiences, build different relationships with their participants, and promote new practices of witnessing and representation? On today’s episode …
Ethnographic Marginalia February 1, 2021

Fútbol in the Park

Immigrants, Soccer, and the Creation of Social Ties

David Trouille

Hosted by Sneha Annavarapu
What meaning does a daily soccer game in a public Los Angeles park have for a group of Latino men and the ethnographer who studied them? In today’s episode, we …
Anthropology January 27, 2021

The Occupied Clinic

Militarism and Care in Kashmir

Saiba Varma

Hosted by Sneha Annavarapu
In The Occupied Clinic: Militarism and Care in Kashmir (Duke UP, 2020), Saiba Varma explores the psychological, ontological, and political entanglements between medicine and violence in Indian-controlled Kashmir—the world's most …
Ethnographic Marginalia January 18, 2021

Studying LBGT Organizing in China

A Conversation with Caterina Fugazzola

Caterina Fugazzola

Hosted by Sneha Annavarapu
In today’s episode of Ethnographic Marginalia, Sneha Annavarapu talks with Dr. Caterina Fugazzola, Earl S Johnson Instructor in Sociology at the University of Chicago, about her research on the contemporary …
Ethnographic Marginalia December 7, 2020

Introduction to 'Ethnographic Marginalia'

A Discussion with Alex Diamond and Sneha Annavarapu

Alex Diamond and Sneha Annavarapu

Hosted by Sneha Annavarapu
Far too often, the most evocative and interesting experiences that come out of ethnographic fieldwork are pushed to the margins. In the first episode of Ethnographic Marginalia, series hosts Sneha …
South Asian Studies November 30, 2020

The Truth Machines

Policing, Violence, and Scientific Interrogations in India

Jinee Lokaneeta

Hosted by Sneha Annavarapu
Using case studies and the results of extensive fieldwork, this book considers the nature of state power and legal violence in liberal democracies by focusing on the interaction between law …
Anthropology November 24, 2020

Enduring Cancer

Life, Death, and Diagnosis in Delhi

Dwaipayan Banerjee

Hosted by Sneha Annavarapu
In Enduring Cancer: Life, Death, and Diagnosis in Delhi (Duke UP, 2020), Dwaipayan Banerjee explores the efforts of Delhi's urban poor to create a livable life with cancer as patients …
South Asian Studies November 20, 2020

Jugaad Time

Ecologies of Everyday Hacking in India

Amit S. Rai

Hosted by Sneha Annavarapu
In India, the practice of jugaad—finding workarounds or hacks to solve problems—emerged out of subaltern strategies of negotiating poverty, discrimination, and violence but is now celebrated in management literature as …
Anthropology November 9, 2020

Sacred Cows and Chicken Manchurian

The Everyday Politics of Eating Meat in India

James Staples

Hosted by Sneha Annavarapu
Bovine politics exposes fault lines within contemporary Indian society, where eating beef is simultaneously a violation of sacred taboos, an expression of marginalized identities, and a route to cosmopolitan sophistication …
Sociology October 23, 2020

Brewing Resistance

Indian Coffee House and the Emergency in Postcolonial India

Kristin Plys

Hosted by Sneha Annavarapu
In 1947, decolonization promised a better life for India's peasants, workers, students, Dalits, and religious minorities. By the 1970s, however, this promise had not yet been realized. Various groups fought …