Manisha Anantharaman

Manisha Anantharaman is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the Center de Sociologie des Organisations, Sciences Po. Her interdisciplinary research explores inequality in ecological transitions through ethnographic and participatory methods. As a critical scholar, she pays specific attention to how “environmental” initiatives—be it municipal recycling schemes, green space development, or global circular economy transition plans—reinforce or dismantle different manifestations of race, class, gender, and caste-based oppression. She has published two books connecting environmental justice, sustainability, and development: “Recycling Class: The contradictions of inclusion in urban sustainability” (MIT Press, 2024) and a co-edited volume “The Circular Economy and the Global South” (Routledge, UK, 2019). She completed her PhD at the University of California Berkeley’s Department of Environmental Science Policy and Management (2015). Before this, she was an Inlaks Scholar at the University of Oxford studying mathematics and biology. You can read more about her research and teaching at manishaanantharaman.com. She is also an Associate Fellow at Chatham House.