Talk: Liberal Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor Tarini Bedi

Attend a talk on ethnographic approaches to cities, borders and infrastructures by Tarini Bedi, Liberal Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor in the Department of Anthropology and director of the Mobilities and Methods Lab at UIC.

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Bedi is program director for cultural anthropology at the National Science Foundation and has held many other study and teaching positions, including the Expanding Internationality Visiting Professorship at the University of Heidelberg, Germany; distinguished visitor at the University of New South Wales, Australia; visiting researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Germany; visiting research fellow at the Center for Mobilities Research, Lancaster, U.K.; and visiting fellow at the Asia Research Institute, Singapore. Bedi is a proud graduate of UIC and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, where she received her doctorate in anthropology in 2009.

Bedi is a cultural anthropologist and ethnographer with teaching and research interests in urban, political and economic anthropology; environment and ecology; infrastructure and mobilities; gender studies; and technology studies. She conducts ethnographic research in India, Pakistan, Singapore, Germany and the United States. Her scholarship has been published in various academic journals, and she is the author of two books: “The Dashing Ladies of Shiv Sena: Political Matronage in Urbanizing India” (2016, SUNY Press) and “Mumbai Taximen: Autobiographies and Automobilities in India” (2022. University of Washington Press), which was awarded a 2022 Victor Turner Prize in ethnographic writing from the American Anthropological Association.

Her third monograph, “Fugitive Touch: Hide-and Seek and Tactile Work in the Platform Economy,” is currently in development for MIT Press’ Labor and Technology Series. She also co-edited a volume with Benjamin Leider, “South Asia on the Move: Mobilities, Mobilizations, Maneuvers,” with University of Amsterdam Press. She is writing a general trade book based on her passion for Zumba and “dancing like no one is watching,” currently titled “Zumba: Moving Life, Breaking Soul.” She is co-editor of the journal the Anthropology of Work Review; a board member for the Society for the Anthropology of Work; a member of the executive committee of the International Association for the History of Traffic, Transport, and Mobility; and on the publications and editorial board for the Association for Asian Studies. Her research and teaching activities have been supported by the American Institute of Indian Studies, the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, the National Science Foundation and the German Academic Exchange.

Bedi has lectured in academic departments around the United States and internationally including at the University of Chicago, Harvard University, Yale University, Pennsylvania State University, Dartmouth University, Duke University, the University of Washington, Cornell University, the University of Notre Dame, Heidelberg University, the University of New South Wales, University of Heidelberg, the Max Planck Institute of Social Anthropology, Mumbai University and the University of Ahmedabad. As the program director for Cultural Anthropology at the National Science Foundation, she is committed to expanding transformative innovations in anthropological science, broadening participation and expanding opportunities in STEM for all, disseminating scientific results to the public and mentoring and supporting the research and careers of anthropologists at all career stages across the nation.

This event will be livestreamed. A reception will follow the in-person event from 5 to 6 p.m.