Disability Justice

On Princeton's campus, I have organized workshops on accessible programming and worked one-on-one with many of my peers in vulnerable academic and medical situations. I have done these independently and in my role as Equity and Inclusion Representative in the Graduate History Association. Moreover, disability studies and disability justice spaces have taught me the value of collaboration, and I have been lucky to find community and critical feedback while convening the IHUM Disability Studies Working Group and Social Theory and Social Thought: Theorizing the Human workshop.

Off campus, I serve on the boards of the non-profits Asian Americans with Disabilities Initiative and the Disability History Association. I also worked for the Critical Design Lab at Vanderbilt University from 2022 to 2023 to create an archive which supports advocacy for disability accommodations. I am also involved in advocacy work as a part of the U.S. Gender and Disability Justice Alliance.

I have also fostered connections between various academic and non-academic collaborators invested in critical thinking and organizing around issues in South Asia and the diaspora, something I believe to be critical for savarna scholars in elite institutions to attempt to do regularly. I co-founded the grad-undergrad South Asia Progressive Alliance which leads programming around issues of caste, class, and citizenship. In 2021, after serving as a co-organizer for the South Asia Graduate Workshop on campus, I also received a grant with my advisor and peers entitled “Dissent” from the Chadha Centre on Global India that has funded a postdoc and international scholarly exchange. I also organized with the Philadelphia South Asia Coalition to do anti-caste and anti-fascist teaching and awareness-building, and am involved with the Boston South Asia Coalition. A key place where my research and advocacy meet are in my work with the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal to build and maintain health and disability justice connections between survivors of the Bhopal Gas Leak of 1984 and organizations in the U.S.

I also care deeply about sexual health and safety, working on informal and interpersonal campaigns through my department and the graduate union campaign. I previously served on the Princeton Ad-Hoc Committee on Sexual Culture and Climate. I also was the inaugural campus graduate UMatter fellow, where I supported University Health Services programming on sexual and mental health and audited the UMatter website to be more inclusive of anti-racist and international student concerns.

In recognition of this and my disability justice and South Asia work, I was awarded the Best of Access, Diversity, and Inclusion: Outstanding Advocacy Award by Princeton's Access, Diversity, and Inclusion Office in 2023. The award, as per the BADI website, "recognizes exemplary student leadership, initiative, dedication, and advocacy with a diversity, inclusion, and social justice focus."