Rithika Kumar is an Assistant Professor at Rice University whose research lies at the intersection of gender, urbanization and politics with a regional specialization on South Asia, specifically India. Her research examines how development processes, from economic migration to political decentralization, transform patterns of local political engagement by mediating the relationship between the private and the public. She utilizes a wide array of methods, from intensive qualitative fieldwork to original surveys, quasi-experimental and experimental analyses in my research. Her work has received multiple awards including the Best Graduate Student Paper from APSA’s Migration and Citizenship Section, and the National Science Foundation Dissertation Improvement Grant.