I am Professor of the Anthropology of Work in the Department of Global Labor & Work in the ILR School and Director of the South Asia Program in the Einaudi Center for International Studies at Cornell University.

Before coming to Cornell, from 2015-2020, I was Charles Evans Hughes 1881 Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology and the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University. From 2012-2015, I was a postdoctoral fellow in the Michigan Society of Fellows. I received my Ph.D. from the Department of Anthropology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2012.

I have studied the Indian tea industry since 2006 and published two books (The Darjeeling Distinction and Tasting Qualities) and several articles based on this research.  I also co-edited the School for Advanced Research volume How Nature Works with Alex Blanchette (Tufts University).

I am currently working on a new book, tentatively titled “Himalayan Pastoral: Colonialism, the Countryside, and Life Beyond the Plantation.” It’s a historical ethnography of the pastoral in agrarian colonization that draws on long-term research in Kalimpong, West Bengal, on the India-Bhutan border. See more about this and other projects on the “Ongoing Research” page.