Sociologist
TransEuroWorkS project
I investigate the implementation and evolution of work-life balance policies in Europe, exploring the factors that drive and hinder policy changes in the process. The project is part of a consortium entitled “TransEuroWorkS - Transforming European Work and Social Protection - A New Proactive Welfare State Fit for The Future World of Work”.
Book project
Adapted Delivery: How Childcare Workers and Parents Produce Care in the Neighborhoods of Chennai
I conducted over 200 interviews and observations with childcare workers, administrators and parents in 15 neighborhoods in Chennai, India to examine what gives rise to intra-city variations in the quality of public childcare that ostensibly provides standardized services. Drawing on these data, I argue that the coupling of teachers’ professional identities with their perceptions of parents' expectations for care and their actual pressure leads to uneven childcare quality across neighborhoods. Professional identities shape teachers’ orientation to work – whether and how they seek or ration the quality of care services. Meanwhile, teachers' perceptions about parents' expectations for childcare stem from the social space of the neighborhood—their class and caste distinctions—which inform teachers about the extent to which parents demand quality. These findings offer a new theory of public service provision in settings characterized by limited formal accountability and high residential segregation. This research shows that beyond resources and organizational characteristics, care quality is also shaped through social relations and feedback loops between residents and frontline workers.
This project received an award for Outstanding Qualitative Data Management Plan by The Qualitative Data Repository and Princeton Research Data Service, US
Other projects
Change or stability at home? Professional women negotiating care work during the COVID 19 pandemic in India
I use 51 in-depth interviews with telecommuting upper-class mothers and fathers in urban India during the pandemic to examine how professional women managed and negotiated the increased load of childcare and household responsibilities during the pandemic.
Women's employment and childcare provision in urban Vietnam
I am consulting the World Bank on a multi-method project (using household and childcare provider surveys and focus groups) to examine how childcare services and care responsibilities at large shape women's employment outcomes in four cities in Vietnam.