Hello,

I am a historian of sound media and modern South Asia and an assistant professor in the Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies (MESAAS) at Columbia University. I write and teach about the role of media in the making and unmaking of borders.

My book Radio for the Millions: Hindi-Urdu Broadcasting Across Borders (Columbia University Press, 2023) follows radio stations in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Germany and parts of Southeast Asia as it argues for a new geography of radio based on language groups rather than national or regional borders. The book expands on my 2015 dissertation (University of Texas at Austin), which won the Sardar Patel Award for best dissertation on modern South Asia in any discipline defended at a U.S. institution.

At Columbia, I teach courses on South Asian history from an interdisciplinary perspective and sound studies. I also as teach Contemporary Civilization I and II in the university’s core curriculum.