Diya Mehra is a Senior Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at South Asian University, New Delhi. Trained as a cultural anthropologist, her research focuses on the historical and contemporary urbanization of metropolitan cities in India, metropolitan urban governance, the contemporary urbanisation of small Indian towns and their rural hinterlands, particularly in mountain environments, and in the context of climate change . Her writing has been published in leading academic journals, and in numerous edited volumes. She is currently the co-editor of the journal Society and Culture in South Asia.
Diya says:
“I’m thrilled and grateful to the RSA for awarding me a research grant under the RSA’s membership research grant scheme. As someone deeply invested in regional and spatial studies, I welcome the opportunity to pursue my research on the regulation of tourism driven urbanisation in India’s Western Himalayas, given increasing externalities, and climate change in this region. I also look forward to sharing my work with the wider body of RSA members and other stakeholders alike, at a time when debates about appropriate regulation are growing.”