Robert Smith

Researching: health, clinics, and electoral politics in South Asia. PhD candidate @GVAGrad_anso. Visiting PhD @CalAnthro

[SOAS South Asia Institute @SOAS_SAI]

Workshop on authoritarianism, law, and the remaking of society

🗓️19 - 20 June 2025, 10am
📌S312 (Paul Webley Wing), SOAS

Registration: https://t.co/ngxkrvYqie

Programme 👇

[Saib Bilaval @SaibBilaval]

It's part of a long-running movement, some of it is covered here:

[Sushmita Pati @PostitAcademic]

Wrote something for Public Culture on what Bulldozers have come to mean today. It engages Science and Technology studies with questions of contemporary politics in India and beyond. The proof copy is behind the paywall for a while. Here is the link.

https://t.co/Z0i18wd2qO

[PC Saidalavi @pc_saidalavi]

Thrilled to share the cover of my book, forthcoming from @PennPress 😍❤️

[Kiran Kumbhar @kikumbhar]

In the public health literature on India, one thing folks like me dont agree with is the persistent belief that India is 'resource-poor' or has 'insufficient funds' for taking care of its people.

Awesom that back in 1971, KS Sanjivi had already made this point: India ain't poor.

[Saib Bilaval @SaibBilaval]

Meera Nanda - A Field Guide to Post-Truth India

Explains a lot of the nonsense we see today in terms of saffronized institutional discourse and its intellectual roots - especially in the fields of science, medicine and education - while offering solid rebuttals.

Read:

[Ritwika Patgiri @RitwikaPatgiri]

Very interesting read so far.

[Purva Dewoolkar @purvadewoolkar]

Just published in Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space!

This paper examines Mumbai's unfinished sewage infrastructure and deepens our understanding of how infrastructural 'delays' are lived.

Link: https://t.co/dVY9o1oyzV

#UrbanStudies #Infrastructure #Mumbai

[Rohit @itihaasnaama]

Assembling India's Constitution: A New Democratic History by @OrnitShani and @itihaasnaama is out later this year with @CambridgeUP (cover below) and @PenguinIndia

https://t.co/wBMcK8ltE8

[Ismat Ara @IsmatAraa]

The past few days have been a harsh lesson in how India's top private hospitals treat EWS patients. What unfolded at @fortis_hospital in Delhi was not just negligence, it was open discrimination. A case study on how healthcare, at its worst, becomes a privilege, not a right:

[Sukhada @appadappajappa]

Want to pick up a great book to read on Women’s Day? These are my 5 recommendations -

1) Why Loiter?

This book is such an eye-opener on how we perceive and behave in public spaces and how inherently gendered these spaces are. Fantastic for working towards an inclusive world!

[Robert Smith @Robosmit]

@PoojaSharm3006 And you were a hug reason for that, Pooja. You teach me so much. Thank you

[Robert Smith @Robosmit]

18 months later. That was hard. Lots to write. I didnt feel safe posting much on twitter during the duration of my research. Will be nice to be back, and redicosver my voice.

Fieldwork: done ✔️

[Robert Smith @Robosmit]

Time for a new chapter … Delhi here I come.

Qualifying exams ✅
Grant apps ✅
Conference hosting ✅
Overwhelming immigration documentation ✅
Nearly entering legal battles with Swiss landlords re subletting (and winning!) ✅

Thanks for everything Geneve

Fieldwork … loading!

[Akshay Marathe @AkshayMarathe]

AAP has made lots of mistakes - but this 2025 election loss cannot be attributed to a single one of them. BJP won thru a brazen power grab.

Other explanations are missing the giant elephant in the room - a BJP that is subverting our democracy.

https://t.co/PKr2od6wDt

[Rituparna Chatterjee @MasalaBai]

It's practically nightmare going to big private hospitals. You get the sense from minute you step foot they are preparing you to spend as much money as possible before they let you leave. We recently went to prominent hospital in NCR to doctor who came recommended for my mother

[Rebecca Waxman @RebeccaWaxman1]

The CfP for the UCLA Center for India and South Asia (CISA) Interdisciplinary Grad Conference (May 17 '25) is live. Please submit abstracts and share widely: https://t.co/KtYPmswsEm

[Robert Smith @Robosmit]

@Jasmine441 @PenguinIndia Any planned book launches in Delhi that are open to the public?

[Kiran Kumbhar @kikumbhar]

Ppl r rightly mad about a new South Asian ('Indian') history textbook by an academician whose Twitter feed contains massive red (& bhagwa) flags.

Just taking the opportunity to remind folks of a brilliant history textbook they might never have heard of. G. Aloysius's eye-opener:

[Robert Smith @Robosmit]

@Vakeel_Sb Any type of analysis you are aware of that goes into the history (of the political economy) of this act? ie why who how, etc. Thanks for sharing this important point

[Siddharth @DearthOfSid]

How people are fooled to work against their collective interests by popular capitalist propaganda tropes: a thread 🧵