(Visiting PhD Fellow, August 2026 – present)

Biography:

Diya Mehra is a Senior Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at South Asian University. Broadly, her research interests lie in considering the production of spaces in South Asia, both historically and in the contemporary. Her writing has been published in leading academic journals and focuses on 1) Delhi’s urbanization in the 20^th century, 2) the impact of economic liberalization on Indian metropolitan cities, 3) contemporary urbanization processes in small Indian towns and their rural hinterlands, including through the new building of infrastructure, and 4) the construction of ‘wilderness’ and ‘natural environments’ in Himachal Pradesh.  Previously, she has been visiting faculty at the School of Planning and Architecture, a postdoctoral fellow at the Centre de Sciences Humaines, New Delhi, and a researcher at the Sarai-CSDS programme. She is currently the Editor-in-Chief of the journal Society and Culture in South Asia.

At CSH, Diya is starting a new research project which focuses on the urbanisation of Manali, in Himachal Pradesh with a particular focus on land diversion and the management of garbage. This, as a way of considering what are appropriate modes of regulation of the built environment in this Himalayan context? The study will investigate this question via local discourses, infrastructure, policies, practices, and civil society initiatives, and against the backdrop of increasing tourism, urbanisation and climate induced crises, to consider what are forms of desirable regulation, including fault-lines and local contradictions.

Selected Publications:

• Shifting Ruralities: A Case Study of Higher Education, Tourism and Youth in Banjar District, Himachal Pradesh, South Asian History and Culture on ‘Urban Transformations, Youth Aspirations, and Education in India’, Manisha Priyam, Divya Vaid and Mona Mehra, editors, vol 15, no 2, pp.1-17, 2024.
•  Jangpura Triptych: The Middle class, Resident Welfare Associations, and Delhi’s Residential Modernity, Economic and Political Weekly, vol. 55, no. 51, 26 Dec, 2020.
• Wealth, Mobility, Accretive Citizenship and Belonging: Why Everyone Comes to Kullu and How they Remain in Marie-Hélène Zérah and Eric Denis (eds): Subaltern Urbanisation in India: An Introduction to the Dynamics of Ordinary Towns: Delhi: Springer, 2017.
• Planning Delhi ca 1936-1959, special issue of South Asia Beyond the Colonial City.  The Urban History of South Asia, 1920-1970, Nikhil Rao and Douglas Haynes guest editors, Vol. 36, no 3, September 2013.
• with Lalit Batra. Neoliberal Delhi: Through the Lens of the Yamuna Pushta Slum Demolitions in Broius, C. and Ahuja, R. eds. Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata: Approaches to Metropolitan Cities in India. Heidelberg: Draupadi Verlag, 2006.