Namita Dharia is a socio-cultural anthropologist and an architect specializing in urban South Asia. She has a Ph.D. in Anthropology from Harvard University and a M.Arch. in Architecture from Cornell University. Dharia is interested in bridging design and social science methodologies and theories to study social justice, human-object relations, ecologies, labor, and urban political economy. Dharia conducted research in cities across northeast India, north India, central India and west India. Within them she studied urban governance and planning policies, private construction industry practices and labor migratory pathways. Her research collaborations include a study of large-scale temporary cities and architectures such as the Kumbh Mela festival city that assembles and dissembles within the span of three months and ethnographic design projects in Detroit. She is currently completing a book on the construction industry in India entitled the Industrial Ephemeral.

https://www.risd.edu/academics/history-philosophy-and-social-sciences/faculty/namita-vijay-dharia
https://risd.academia.edu/NamitaDhari