Profile
Shreya Sinha is a political economist studying agricultural value chains and commodity markets, rural labour relations and ecological dimensions of agrarian change. Her work is focused on India, while being in conversation with other regions of the Global South, and is deeply historically informed. She has wide-ranging experience in intensive independent and collaborative field research in India.
Shreya has a PhD in Development Studies from SOAS University of London, an MA in Development Studies from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, and a Bachelor’s in History from St. Stephen’s College, University of Delhi. She did her postdoctoral research at the Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, and has previously taught at the University of Reading, Cambridge, SOAS and LSE.
Teaching
Postgraduate
- Global Supply Chain Management (BUSM091)
Shreya also teaches a module on 'Navigating Fieldwork' as part of the PhD training pathways at the School of Business and Management.
She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy/Advance HE.
Research
Research Interests:
Shreya’s research interests include debates in agrarian political economy, political ecology, political economy of development and economic geography, with a regional focus on India. More specifically, her recent and ongoing works are focused across the following inter-related areas:
- Agricultural commodity markets and value chains;
- Agrarian capital and links with non-agricultural sectors;
- Rural labour relations;
- Environmental contexts of agrarian production.
Centre and Group Membership:
- Co-Director, Centre on Labour Sustainability and Global Production (CLaSP)
- Member, QMUL South Asia Forum
Publications
Journal Articles
- Sinha, S., Narain, N. and Bhanjdeo, A. 2022. ‘Building back better? Resilience as wellbeing for rural migrant households in Bihar, India’, World Development, 159, 106031 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2022.106031
- Mehta. S. and Sinha, S. 2022. ‘The Rise and Fall of Agrarian Populism in Post-colonial India: Farmers’ Movements and Electoral Politics at Crossroads’, Sociological Bulletin, 71(4), 601-618 https://doi.org/10.1177/00380229221116944
- Pratheepa, Rengalakshmi, R, Sinha, S. 2022. ‘The socio-ecological contradictions of land degradation and coastal agriculture in south India’, Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space, 6(1), 391-411 https://doi.org/10.1177/25148486221079720
- Sinha, S. 2022. ‘From cotton to paddy: Political crops in the Indian Punjab’, Geoforum, 130, 146-154 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2021.05.017
- Pattenden, J, Campling, L, Castañón Ballivián, E, Gras, C, Lerche, J, O’Laughlin, B, Pérez-Niño, H, Sinha, S. 2021. ‘Introduction: Covid-19 and the Conditions and Struggles of Agrarian Classes of Labour’, Journal of Agrarian Change, 21(3), 582-590 https://doi.org/10.1111/joac.12440
- Sinha, S. 2021. ‘Revisiting agrarian questions of capital: Examining diversification by capitalist farmers in Punjab, India’, Third World Quarterly, 42(4), 699-716 https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2021.1873762
- Sinha, S. 2020. ‘Betting on potatoes: Accumulation in times of agrarian crisis in Punjab, India’, Development and Change, 51(6), 1533-1554 https://doi.org/10.1111/dech.12589
- Sinha, S. 2020. ‘The Politics of Markets: Farmer-trader relations under neoliberalism in Punjab, India’, Journal of Agrarian Change, 20(2), 255-269 https://doi.org/10.1111/joac.12346
- Sinha, S. 2019. ‘Is the Aspirational Districts Programme Merely A Political Device?’ Economic and Political Weekly, 54(3) https://www.epw.in/engage/article/is-the-aspirational-districts-programme-merely-a-political-device-development
Book Chapters
- Sinha, S. and Vira, B. 2021. ‘The Rural Non-Farm Economy in India Revisited: From Rural Industrialization to Rural Entrepreneurs’, in Murat Arsel, Anirban Dasgupta and Servaas Storm (ed.) Reclaiming Development Studies: Essays for Ashwani Saith, Anthem Press.
- Sinha, S. 2024. ‘Punjab’s Mandis, Agrarian Life and the Farmers’ Protest’, in Christine Moline and David Singh (ed.) The Indian Farmers’ Protest of 2020-21, Routledge.
Book reviews
- Sinha, S. 2016. ‘Review of ‘Mapping India's Capitalism: Old and New Regions’, edited by Elisabetta Basile, Barbara Harriss-White and Christine Lutringer, and ‘Middle India and Urban–Rural Development: Four Decades of Change’, edited by Barbara Harriss-White’. Journal of Agrarian Change 16 (3), 507-511 https://doi.org/10.1111/joac.12157
Other publications (selected)
- Sinha, S. 'Crisis in the Bread Basket', Phenomenal World, September 16, 2023. (Republished in Himal SouthAsian) https://www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/crisis-in-the-bread-basket/
- Bhogal, S. and Sinha, S. ‘India protests: farmers could switch to more climate-resilient crops – but they have been given no incentive’, The Conversation, February 12, 2021. https://theconversation.com/india-protests-farmers-could-switch-to-more-climate-resilient-crops-but-they-have-been-given-no-incentive-154700
- Sinha, S. ‘In Punjab, the centrality of the mandi system’, Hindustan Times, December 18, 2020 https://www.hindustantimes.com/analysis/in-punjab-the-centrality-of-the-mandi-system/story-V1QIJJuShlfDIRiaE7ukQJ.html
- Sinha, S. ‘The Agrarian Crisis in Punjab and the Making of the Anti-Farm Law Protests’, The India Forum, November 28, 2020 https://www.theindiaforum.in/article/agrarian-crisis-punjab-and-making-anti-farm-law-protests (republished in Developing Economics)
Public Engagement
Shreya has been interviewed by media organizations such as BBC Radio, CarbonBrief and Business Insider, and has written for popular platforms such as The Conversation, on her areas of research expertise, among other forms of public engagement.
She is an editor of the Journal of Agrarian Change: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/14710366
She is also an Affiliate of Hughes Hall, University of Cambridge.
