Nandita Badami

Nandita Badami studied anthropology at the University of California, Irvine, where she received her PhD in 2021. Her dissertation explored the emerging politics of sunlight as an industrialized energy resource in the wake of India’s ambitious National Solar Mission. Her current project at the MPIWG develops this work for publication by considering the manner in which “solution" as a concept is beginning to enjoy novel status in the history of ideas. She works at the intersection of anthropology, the history of knowledge, and political philosophy.

Nandita’s previous degrees include an MA and MPhil in Political Studies from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, and a BA in Political Science from the University of Delhi. She has been a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania, and a Landaus Fellow at the Rachel Carson Center in Munich. At the MPIWG, she is also a member of the “Environmental Knowledge in Times of Crisis” Working Group.