I am a cultural anthropologist and multi-media documentarian. My writing has been published in The New York Times, Modern Farmer, The Bay Citizen, Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, The Semiotic Review and India’s The Caravan. In radio, my audio documentaries have been featured by The Kitchen Sisters, NPR Berlin, BBC Radio 4, and Resonance FM. I have also published an academic book about collective memory in post-communist East Germany called The Memory Laboratories.
I completed my PhD in Anthropology at Princeton University in May 2023. My research interests lie at the intersection of studies of gender, urban space, and collective life. Drawing on my experience as a journalist and radio producer, my scholarly work implements creative, multi-media story-telling methods such as audio documentary, film and photography. My research is grounded in longstanding collaborations with the communities I have studied, who have graciously let me into their lives: you can find the results of these partnerships here.
My book project, In Pursuit of Radiance: Gender and Public Life in Delhi’s Muslim Communities, which is based on 24 months of ethnographic research conducted in working-class, Muslim areas of India’s capital city.
My book examines the aspirations of a new generation of young Muslim women at a time of intense volatility for Muslim communities in India today. My book documents how this new generation of Muslim women from poor backgrounds are striving for a life of radiance (in Urdu: raunaq) as they immerse themselves in the bustle of collective life.
My research has been supported by the Fulbright-Hays Program, the Charlotte Newcombe Foundation, the Global Religion Research Institute, Princeton’s Center for the Study of Religion and the Center for Human Values at Princeton. I hold a BA in South Asian Studies from the University of Chicago and an MA in Social Anthropology from the School of Oriental and African Studies.
Contact me at: thaliag86(AT)gmail.com
Rooftops in Okhla, Delhi