Dr. Sumeet Mhaskar (Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellow at Göttingen University)

Sumeet Mhaskar is currently Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellow at the Centre for Modern Indian Studies (CeMIS), University of Göttingen. Sumeet also holds a Junior Research Partner position at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, Göttingen. Prior to his current position, Sumeet was Post-Doctoral Fellow with the Transnational Research Group (TRG) on ‘Education and Poverty in Modern India’ at CeMIS, Göttingen. He has previously held Visiting Scholar positions at the Center for South Asia, Stanford University and Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, Göttingen. He holds a doctorate in Sociology from St. Antony's College, University of Oxford. Sumeet has studied for the B.A degree in History and Political Science at D. G. Ruparel College, University of Mumbai; and M.A and M. Phil degrees in Political Science at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. In his current project which is supported by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Sumeet examines rural-urban linkages in a globalizing Mumbai city. He is interested in understanding the urban experience of rural labor migrants who enter the city through well established and old networks. In addition, he is also working on his book manuscript publication which is based on my doctoral thesis that examined Mumbai’s ex-millworkers’ responses to their job loss as a result of the closure of textile mills in Girangaon, the industrial heartland of the city since the mid-19th century. Sumeet’s research interests include labor studies, political economy, economic sociology, discrimination and exclusion at workplaces, Indian politics, urban transformation and social movements, and education of economically and socially marginalized groups.