Professor, Associate Chair and Director of Graduate Studies
Department of Political Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Hometown: Bombay, India
Rikhil is a Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he serves as the Associate Chair and Director of Graduate Studies. He is also a Faculty Affiliate at the La Follette School of Public Affairs, the Data Science Institute, the Elections Research Center, and the Center for South Asia. Rikhil was previously the Director of the Center for South Asia. Rikhil’s research focuses on the political economy of development and migration, and on inequalities in political representation, mainly in South Asia. He is currently working on a book, joint with Saumitra Jha, on the conditions under which mass, nonviolent mobilizations can succeed. He is the co-author, with Bethany Lacina, of a book on the backlash against within-country migration across the developing world, published by Cambridge University Press. His papers have been published in various journals, including the American Political Science Review, the American Journal of Political Science, and the Journal of Politics.
Talks:
The Indian Experience with Affirmative Action
The world’s largest country by population is also among its most diverse and unequal. To address historical inequalities, India has an extensive set of affirmative action policies in education, politics and for government jobs. What has the Indian experience with affirmative action policies been? And what if any lessons can the United States draw from the Indian experience?
Democracy and Development in India
India has for long been billed the world’s largest democracy and one of the world’s largest markets. What is the state of democracy and development in the country? What is the history of democracy and development in India and what might the future auger?