Indivar Jonnalagadda
jonnali@miamioh.edu | Google Scholar | ORCID
Professional Appointments
2023 - Assistant Professor of International Studies, Department of Global and Intercultural Studies, Miami University, Oxford, OH
Education
2023 Ph.D. in Anthropology and South Asia Studies, University of Pennsylvania
2014 M.A. in Development Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai
2012 B.Sc. in Statistics, St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai
Other Professional Experience
2014-16 Research Associate, Hyderabad Urban Lab
Awards
2025 Junior Faculty Scholar Award, Miami University
2023 Special Mention, Urban Studies Journal’s Best Article of 2022 Award
Selected Grants and Fellowships
2024 College of Arts & Sciences Research Grant, Miami University
2023 Thomas Zwicker Memorial Fund Award, University of Pennsylvania (Penn)
2021 Penn Andrea Mitchell Center for the Study of Democracy Graduate Fellowship, for 2021-2022
2020 Penn Humanities+Urbanism+Design Mellon Graduate Student Research Award
2019 WennerGren Foundation Dissertation Research Grant
2019 American Institute of Indian Studies (AIIS) Joseph W. Elder Social Sciences Fellowship.
2018 Geo L. Harrison Graduate Fellowship, Penn, for 2018-2019
2016 Benjamin Franklin Graduate Fellowship, Penn
Selected Publications
Journal Articles
2024 “City Drafting: Property-making and Bureaucratic Urbanism in South Asia,” City 28 (1-2): 7-23. [Link]
2023 “Waiting for Dignity Housing: Slum Redevelopment, Cruel Governance, and Unaccounted Time in Hyderabad,” Cambridge Journal of Anthropology, Special Issue “Held in Suspense”, 41 (1): 69-86. [Link]
2023 “Cultural Ecologies of Urban Lakes: The Bathukamma Festival, Caste Associations, and Resource Claims in Hyderabad,” Economic & Political Weekly, Review of Urban Affairs, 58 (8) : 57-61. (Co-authored with Pullanna Vidyapogu) [Link]
2022 “Of Political Entrepreneurs: Assembling Community and Social Capital in Hyderabad’s Informal Settlements.” Urban Studies, 59 (4): 717–33. [Link]
2021 “Titling as a Contested Process: Conditional Land Rights and Subaltern Citizenship in South India.” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 45 (3): 458–76. (Co-authored with Ryan Stock and Karan Misquitta) [Link]
2018 “Citizenship as a Communicative Effect.” Signs and Society 6 (3): 531–57. [Link]
2015 “Rent Gap, Fluid Infrastructure and Population Excess in a Gentrifying Neighbourhood.” City 19 (2–3): 365–74. (Co-authored with Dr. Anant Maringanti) [Link]
2014 “Rethinking Governance of Public Toilets: Lessons for Swacch Bharat from Hyderabad.” Economic & Political Weekly 49 (48): 41–45. (Co-authored with Sandeep Tanniru) [Link]
Book Chapters
2023 “War on Slums: Slum-free Cities Programs and People’s Struggles to Stay Put in Visakhapatnam,” in Claims on the City: Situated Narratives of the Urban, edited by C. Yamini Krishna, Amy Phua Mei Yen, and Nisha Mathew, 231-244. Lanham: Lexington Books.
2021 “The Neighbourhood Effect: Coexistence of Residential and Occupational Opportunities in ‘Muslim Neighbourhoods’ of Hyderabad.” In Muslims in Telangana: A Discourse on Equity, Development, and Security, edited by G. Sudhir, M. A. Bari, Amir Ullah Khan, and Abdul Shaban, 102–23. Singapore: Springer Nature. (Co-authored with Mohammad Sajjad Hussain, Sriharsha Devulapalli, and Anant Maringanti)
2018 “A Civic Mapping Project in an Indian Megacity: The Uses and Challenges of Spatial Data for Critical Research.” In This Is Not an Atlas: A Global Collection of Counter-Cartographies, edited by Kollektiv Orangotango+, 100–105. Bielefeld, Germany: transcript. (Co-authored with Harsha Devulapalli)
2018 “No Entry.” In The Global Encyclopaedia of Informality, Volume 2, edited by Alena Ledeneva, 250-253. London, UK: UCL Press. (Co-authored with Dr. Nikhilesh Sinha)
Online Publications (Selected)
2025 "Miami University students engage with Tandana during campus events,” Tandana Foundation Blog, January 5, 2025. [Link]
2021 “I’m not there – A Hyderabad / Philadelphia Parallax,” Ethnographic Marginalia, September 7. [Link]
2021 “Affordable Rental Housing Complexes for Urban Migrants: Problems and Prospects,” India in Transition, March 1. (Co-authored with Manav K) [Link]
2021 “Interview with Kregg Hetherington on The Government of Beans”, CaMP Anthropology Blog, January 11. [Link]
2020 “Urban Local Bodies are critical in the fight against COVID-19.” Hyderabad Urban Lab Blog, March 30. (Co-authored with Ayesha Minhaz)
Documentary Films
2021 “The Composters”, (10 mins). [Watch Here]
2021 “I’m not there”, (8 mins). [Watch Here]
Courses Taught
Fall 2024 “ITS 302 Issues in the Global South: Sustainability and Security,” Miami University
Fall 2024 “ITS 201 Introduction to International Studies,” Miami University
Spring 2024 “ITS/ATH 301 Intercultural Relations: Difference, Power, and Justice,” Miami University
Spring 2024 “ITS 201 Introduction to International Studies,” Miami University
Fall 2023 “ITS 302 Issues in the Global South: Sustainable Development,” Miami University
Fall 2023 “ITS 201 Introduction to International Studies,” Miami University
Spring 2022 “SAST/ANTH/URBS 002 The City in South Asia,” University of Pennsylvania
Recent Presentations
Invited Talks
2025 “Reactive Regulation: How Property Shapes Urban Growth and Undermines Planning,” Geography Colloquium at Miami University, Oxford, April 25.
2024 “Markets of Unreal Estate: Property transfers and social stratification in Hyderabad’s slums,” Society, Politics, and Economy Seminar at Miami University, Oxford, October 18.
2024 “Permanent Slums: The Limits of Property and Citizenship for the Urban Poor in Hyderabad,” a talk at English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad, June 26.
2024 “Unreal Estate in a Global City: Slums in Hyderabad as Auto-constructed Property Markets,” Urban Workshop #172: Organized by CPR-India and CSH-New Delhi, June 25.
2024 “City Drafting: Property, Planning, and Politics in South Asia,” Publics@IIHS Panel Discussion, co-organized and co-moderated with Thomas Cowan, Online Session, May 16.
2023 “Politics Property and Planning in Global Hyderabad,” Khidki Deccan Conversations: Virtual Session, August 5.
2023 “The Limits of Housing Policy in Indian Cities,” Open Seminar 2023: Balwant Sheth School of Architecture, Mumbai, June 28.
2023 “Caste and Urban Political Ecology: Enduring Structures, Elusive Dynamics,” Publics@IIHS Series: Indian Institute of Human Settlements (IIHS) Bengaluru City Campus, June 1.
2021 “‘Useless’ Land Titles and Subaltern Citizenship in Hyderabad, India,” Yale South Asia Brown Bag Series: Virtual Session, October 27.
2021 “Of Political Entrepreneurs: Assembling Community and Social Capital in Hyderabad’s Informal Settlements,” Emerging Scholars in South Asia, Seminar at the University of Melbourne: Virtual Session, July 16.
2020 “Seeing Like a Bureaucrat: Property and the Construction of Urban Space,” Penn Urban Studies Graduate Colloquium: Virtual Session, November 19.
Conference Presentations (Selected)
2024 “Kabza and Claims to the City: A Multi-lingual Taxonomy of Urban (Un)settlement in Hyderabad,” Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Associations 2024: Tampa, November 21.
2024 “Fait Accompli Regulation: Bureaucratic epistemologies, property relations, and scales of everyday governance in Hyderabad,” Annual Conference on South Asia 2024, Madison, November 1.
2024 “Nature and Nuisance: Land-use Ideologies and the Question of Urban Commons in Hyderabad,” Dimensions of Political Ecology Conference 2024: Lexington, February 24.
2023 “Rightful Invasions: Public Housing Projects and the Politics of Occupancy in South India,” Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association 2023: Toronto, November 16.
2023 “Kabza in the Hyderabadi Imagination: A Multilingual Taxonomy of Urban Unsettlement,” Annual Conference on South Asia 2022, Madison, October 18.
2023 “Markets of Unreal Estate in Hyderabad,” Penn South Asia Center Workshop on The Politics of Mediating Markets in South Asia: Philadelphia, May 4.
2023 “Cultural Ecologies of Urban Lakes: The Bathukamma Festival, Caste Associations, and Resource Claims in Hyderabad,” Annual Meeting of the American Association of Geographers 2023: Denver, March 25. (with Pullanna Vidyapogu)
2022 “Dharmaganta: A War against Corruption in the Telugu Public Sphere,” Annual Telugu Studies Conference 2022: Philadelphia, December 2.
2022 ““Waiting for Dignity: Cruel governance and unaccounted time in Hyderabad,” Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association 2022: Seattle, November 9.
2022 “No Entry: Rethinking Law and Markets through Real Estate in Hyderabad Slums,” Annual Conference on South Asia 2022: Madison, October 22
2022 “Caste, State, & Urban Ecology: How the Bathukamma Festival Reworked Socio-Environmental Relations in Hyderabad,” Eighth Penn Semiotic Anthropology Conference: Virtual Session, May 14.
2022 “Legal Pragmatics: Pluralism and Hierarchy in Hyderabad Property Markets,” Annual Meeting of the American Association of Geographers 2022: Virtual Session, February 28.
2022 “Disciplining the Planet of Slums: Habitat Improvement in Hyderabad before the Infrastructural Turn,” Annual Meeting of the American Association of Geographers 2022: Virtual Session, February 27.
2022 “After Land Titling: ‘Useless’ land titles and subaltern citizenship in Hyderabad,” IIHS Urban ARC 2022: Virtual Session, January 14.
2021 “No Entry: Private Property and its Discontents in Hyderabad’s Slum Settlements,” Penn South Asia Studies Colloquium: Virtual Session, December 8.
2021 “Technomoral Geographies: governing space as property across the rural-urban divide,” Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association (AAA): Baltimore, November 18.
2021 “Waiting for Dignity Housing,” Columbia Society of Fellows Symposium on Governance by Anticipation: New York, April 21.
2021 “‘Useless’ land titles and subaltern citizenship in Hyderabad, India,” The Andrea Mitchell Center for Democracy Graduate Workshop: Virtual Session, April 14.
2021 “Negotiating Urban Form: property relations and spatial governance in Hyderabad, India,” Mellon Humanities+Urbanism+Design Colloquium: Virtual Session, February 26.
2021 “Of Political Entrepreneurs: assembling community and influence in Hyderabad’s informal settlements,” Penn IUR Forum on Urban Informality: Virtual Session, February 12.
2020 “Slum-making,” Penn EnviroLab Workshop: Virtual Session, October 30.
2020 “Enregistering ‘Private Ownership’ in Informal Settlements of Hyderabad, India,” Sixth IIHS PhD Workshop: Bengaluru, January 13.
2019 “Legal Title, Permanent Slums: Subaltern Property Rights and Informal Spatial Governance in Hyderabad, India,” RC21@Delhi: In and Beyond the City: Delhi, September 12.
2019 “Directing Distribution: Land Titles, Bureaucratic Texts, and the Two Faces of Paternalism in South India,” American Association of Geographers Annual Meeting: Washington, DC, April 7. (with Karan Misquitta)
2019 “Narratives of Yuddham (War) and Sangham (Solidarity) in Squatter Settlements of Visakhapatnam,” Telugu Studies Workshop on Power and Cultural Production: Philadelphia PA, March 31.
2018 “Political Entrepreneurs in Indian Slums: Changing Contexts of Community Leadership in Hyderabad,” 117th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association (AAA): San Jose, November 13.
2018 “Technologies of Invasion: Insurgence and Inducements on Public Land in Coastal Andhra,” Annual Conference on South Asia: Madison, October 12.
2018 “Citizens in the Making: The Uptake of Government Orders in Hyderabad, India,” Annual Meeting of the Society for Linguistic Anthropology: Philadelphia PA, March 8.
Conference Sessions & Workshops Organized (Selected)
2023 “State Housing Regimes Across Transitions,” Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association 2023: Toronto, November 16. (with Mariana Irby and Xinyu Guan)
2023 “Symposium - Thinking In and From Telugu: Understanding Connections, Querying Boundaries,” Annual Conference on South Asia 2022, Madison, October 18. (with Abhishek Bhattacharyya and Saila Sri Kambhatla)
2023 “Penn South Asia Center Workshop onThe Politics of Mediating Markets in South Asia,” Philadelphia, May 4. (with Amrita Kurian)
2022 “Rebuilding Economies: Tradition and Innovation in South Asia’s Market Society,” at the Annual Conference on South Asia 2022: Madison, October 22. (with Navjit Kaur)
2022 “CASI 30th Anniversary Workshop: City Drafting: Property-making and Bureaucratic Urbanism in South Asia,” Philadelphia, May 23.
2022 “Ecologies and Empire,” at Screening Scholarship Media Festival 2022: Virtual Session, March 26.
2021 “Multimedia Geographies of the State,” at the American Association of Geographers 2021 Annual Meeting: Virtual Session, April 7. (with Karan Misquitta and Saumya Vaishnava)
2021 “Ethnography and Environmental Futures,” at Placing: New Approaches to the Environment organized by Penn EnviroLab: Virtual Session, March 20.
2018 “The Meta-pragmatics of South Asian Publics,” at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Linguistic Anthropology: Philadelphia, March 8. (with Kristina Nielsen and Elliot Montpellier)
Multimodal Presentations (Selected)
2024 “The Composters” (Short Film, 10 min.), Dimensions of Political Ecology Conference 2024: Lexington, February 23.
2022 “Gentrification in My Gully: Analyzing Gully Boy (2018),” (Video Essay, 5 min), Screening Scholarship Media Festival 2022. Virtual Session, March 25. (co-authored with Yendi Guindo)
2022 “I’m not there – a Hyderabad/Philadelphia Parallax” (Short Film, 8 min.), AAG Shorts by Film Geographies: Virtual Session, March 1.