My current research examines the changing political context of global health and nutrition policy in the context of agrarian India. Using an ethnographic approach, I investigate how a a large livelihood non-governmental organization (NGO) in India has begun to use women’s self-help groups (SHGs) as village level delivery platforms for nutrition and health outreach programs. The use of existing networks of SHGs to maximize program reach represents a major trend in development thinking. Furthermore, the shift away from income and food security programs within this NGO reflects a larger (and significant) re-imagination of human development as it relates to food and nutrition security in the Global South. While traditional agricultural development focused on income and improved staple crop productivity, the new paradigm of nutrition-sensitive agriculture focuses on health and wellbeing by combining climate-smart agronomic practices, a diversification of crops, and a focus on female empowerment to create a supply of more nutritional foods.

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In this project I use a feminist methodology and political ecology of health framework to investigate the political economic structures, biomedical and environmental narratives, and the everyday development practices of nutrition-agriculture programs to see how these affect villagers’ perceptions of physical and psychosocial health.

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In support of this research, I have received over $55,000 from the Borlaug Fellowship for Global Food Security, the Society of Women Geographers Pruitt Fellowship, the Social Science Research Council, Philanthropic Education Organization (PEO), Association of American Geographers (AAG) Geographic Perspectives on Women Specialty Group, AAG Political Geography Specialty Group, American Institute of Indian Studies Language Fellowship, Association of Pacific Coast Geographers Margaret Trussell Scholarship Program, University of Arizona (UA) Social and Behavioral Research Institute Dissertation Grant Program, UA Graduate and Professional Student Research Grant, and UA Institute of the Environment Carson Fellowship Program