Malini Ranganathan

Malini Ranganathan is an associate professor in the School of International Service at American University and a political ecologist and geographer by training. She is a scholar of environmental justice interested in the political economy of land, labor, and ecology in the context of capitalist urbanization. She studies how caste and racial histories give rise to unequal housing, water and sanitation, and climate vulnerability. She works on both India (primarily Bangalore) and the U.S. (primarily Washington, DC). She has published over 20 journal articles and two books: “Corruption Plots: Stories, Ethics, and Publics of the Late Capitalist City” (Cornell University Press, 2023) and Rethinking Difference in India Through Racialization: Caste, Tribe, and Hindu Nationalism.” She won the 2023 Harold M. Rose Award for Antiracism Research and Practice from the American Association of Geographers and is senior personnel on a major National Science Foundation grant that promotes sustainable food systems.