South Asia Research Group

Research Pillar(s): Comparative Politics and Area Studies, Political Behaviour, Political Economy

Members: Dr Nirvikar Jassal, Dr Pavithra Suryanarayan, Dr Aliz Toth

Seminar Convener(s): Dr Nirvikar Jassal, Dr Pavithra Suryanarayan, Dr Aliz Toth

Student Chair: Tarsha Vasu

Dr Jassal is Assistant Professor of Political Science. He specialises in policing, crime, and criminal justice with a regional focus on South Asia. His research has utilised quasi-experiments, experiments, and machine learning to understand violence against women, hate crime, perceptions of law enforcement, and criminal justice accountability. 

Dr Suryanarayan is Assistant Professor of Political Science. She studies how the politics of social status shapes state capacity, redistributive preferences, and vote choice in ranked societies like India and the United States. She pursues these research questions using methods in historical political economy that emphasise causal identification, spatial and survey analysis, and archival research. 

Dr Toth is Assistant Professor of Political Science. Her research examines how state and society bargain over the control of natural resources such as land, forests, and minerals. As part of this research agenda, her book project investigates the roots of conflict over the use of eminent domain for infrastructure projects in India.

Seminars will be held on Thursdays for members of the LSE community. 

If you would like to be added to the mailing list, please contact gov.comms@lse.ac.uk.