Since the PhD, my research has been about water in its many forms, either as infrastructure channelled through pipes or in its seemingly natural state as wetlands, rivers, lakes and groundwater.
Water, urban nature & infrastructure
For my PhD (2018, UCL), funded by the UCL Impact PhD Studentship, I studied Chennai’s water supply and household access infrastructures to trace the distinct technological cultures and social structures that shaped water flows in the city. This study followed the growing popularity of reverse osmosis desalination to make potable the city’s deteriorating groundwater resources and more ambitiously, the sea at its doorstep. It was then placed in comparative analysis with techno-political processes governing water supply in London.
Working as part of the Rethinking Urban Nature project at the University of Cambridge, I directed my attention towards the estuarine, wetland geographies of Chennai, engaging with the political movements emerging around issues of environmental and social justice in these ecologies.
Coastal Ecologies
Funded by the Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship held at the London School of Economics and Political Science, I was able to develop longitudinal engagements with inhabitants of coastal Chennai, specifically its artisanal fishers. This will culminate in a monograph on coastal ecologies under preparation now.
Coromandel Coast & the Indian Ocean World
I’m expanding on the above work with preliminary research on agrarian & plantation geographies of the Coromandel Coast and the wider Indian Ocean world. I’ve been awarded a Leverhulme International Fellowship to pursue this project, based at the French Institute of Pondicherry in 2025-26.
Food, Labour & Environment
I’ve collaborated with other researchers & artists in south India to publish a bilingual (Tamil & English) book on life on the Coromandel Coast in the form of a community cookbook, using recipes to tell stories about the place and the people. Funded by the Antipode ‘Right to the Discipline’ Grant, the book was released in early 2025. More about the book here.
kadarkarai 