Biographical

Sunita Parikh is Associate Professor of Political Science. Her primary areas of interest are comparative politics, race and ethnicity, institutions, comparative methods. She has published a book on the institutional development of affirmative action in the United States and India, using comparative historical and rational-choice methods. She has also written on law and politics, education, social movements in the United States and India, and federalism. She is currently working on several projects. The first uses quantitative and qualitative data to analyze the effects of ethnicity and politics on collective violence in India from 1970 to 2003. The second examines the relationship between political parties, economic reform, and federalism in India. The third studies interbranch bargaining, specifically relations between apex courts and the executive, in 18th and 20th century India.