Background
Research interests include world-systems analysis, historical sociology, political economy, and the sociology of food. Currently working on cuisine as an element of state formation and the cultivation of a national culture; on the Americas in the making of early modern world-economies in Asia; on neoliberalism in EuroNorth America and global migrations; and neoliberalism and universities. Earlier work centered on the political economy of east and southeast Asia in the context of contemporary transformations of the capitalist world-economy; on the making of an Indian Ocean world-economy; on critiques of area studies; and on the parallel transformations of China and India since 1947/49. These projects build on a long-standing research interest in excavating the Eurocentric biases of social theory. Authored Capitalist Restructuring and the Pacific Rim (2004); Making of an Indian Ocean World-Economy, 1250-1650: Princes, Paddy fields, and Bazaars (2015); editor of Pacific-Asia and the Future of the World-System (1993); recent articles in Economic and Political Weekly, Critical Asian Studies, South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, Agrarian South: Journal of Political Economy, Third World Quarterly, Inter-Asia Cultural Studies among other journals. Co-editor of the SUNY Press Global Modernities book series.
Education
- PhD, Binghamton University
- Mphil, MA, Jawaharlal Nehru University
- BA, University of Madras
Research Interests
- Historical Sociology
- Political Economy
- World-Systems Analysis
