Siddharth Menon
Position title: PhD
Pronouns: he/him
Email: ssmenon@wisc.edu
Website: sidmenon.com
Address:
Advisor: Stephen Young
WEBLINKS
EDUCATION
2025 (expected), PhD, Geography, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA
——- PhD Minor, Science & Technology Studies (STS)
2018, MA, Geography, University of Colorado at Boulder, USA
——- Graduate Certificate in Development Studies
2011, BArch, Architecture, University of Mumbai, India
RESEARCH & TEACHING INTERESTS
Urban & Economic Geography, Political Ecology, Critical Development Studies, Science & Technology Studies (STS), South Asian Studies, Indian Ocean World Studies
CURRENT RESEARCH
Siddharth’s dissertation project, “Reinforcing Concrete: Capital, Urban Natures, and Infrastructures in Transnational India”, draws on two years (2021-2023) of multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork in India and the UAE to critically examine how the changing built environment of city-regions in India intersect with wider circuits of transnational migration, capital investment, and resource extraction in the era of global climate change. This research project has received over US$40,000 in external funding from the International Journal of Urban and Regional Research Foundation Studentship in 2020 (one of nine awardees from the Global South), the US National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Award in 2021, and the American Institute of Indian Studies Junior Fellowship in 2022 (winner of the first Taraknath Das Memorial Fellowship for the best research proposal).
Siddharth’s research trajectory builds on a decade (2006-2016) of architectural training and professional practice experience in India’s construction industry, where he used sustainable building technologies, like earth and bamboo, to address issues of uneven development and environmental degradation (see architecture work sample).
RESEARCH PUBLICATIONS
PEER-REVIEWED JOURNAL ARTICLES
Menon, S. (2023). “Class, Caste, Gender, and the Materiality of Cement Houses in India”.
Antipode, 55(2), pp. 574-598. https://doi.org/10.1111/anti.12898
Rehman, N., Parikh, A., Lamb, Z., Syal, S., Ghertner, D. A., Menon, S., Anwar, N., Nabi, H., Butt, W., Ranganathan, M., Srinivasan, K., Bhat, H., Powis, A., & Anand, N. (2023). “South Asian Urban Climates: Towards Pluralistic Narratives and Expanded Lexicons”. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 47(4), 667–687. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2427.13173
BOOK CHAPTERS
Menon, S. (Forthcoming). “Incompleteness”, In The Social Properties of Concrete by Elinoff, E. & Rubaii, K. (Eds.). San Francisco, CA: Punctum Books. https://punctumbooks.com/titles/the-social-properties-of-concrete/
BOOK REVIEWS
Menon, S. (2019). Review of “The Promise of Infrastructure” by Nikhil Anand, Akhil Gupta and Hannah Appel (Eds.). The AAG Review of Books. Vol. 7 (4), p.257-269. 10.1080/2325548X.2019.1650554
Menon, S. (2019). Review of “Shiptown: Between Rural and Urban North India” by Ann Grodzins Gold. Economic & Political Weekly. Vol. 54 (13), p.24-25. https://www.epw.in/journal/2019/13/book-reviews/betwixt-and-between.html
COURSES TAUGHT
Lecturer, How to do Undergraduate Research in International Studies (SP25)
Lecturer, World Regions in Global Context, Geography (SU24 Online)
Lecturer, International Development in Comparative Perspective, International Studies (SP24)
Lecturer, Poverty and Global Development, International Studies (FA23)
Lecturer, Global Poverty and Inequality, International Studies (SU21 Online/with Dr. Young)