Ms. Aayushi Bengani is doing a PhD in the Department of Geography at the University of Delhi. Her doctoral research explores urban land management by Indian Railways using ethnographic and archival methods. It builds on her sustained engagement with urban informality through her study and work experiences in Mumbai. These consist of her MA in the School of Media and Cultural Studies at Tata Institute of Social Sciences, her internship with the daily The Indian Express, and her work with development organizations Azim Premji Foundation and YUVA.
A Senior Research Fellow at Delhi School of Economics, Aayushi has consistently presented her research on “vacant” railway lands in Mumbai at eminent urban workshops and conferences globally. These include Urban Theories Across Borders’s Workshop on Researching the Ordinary City, Bangkok and Urban Affairs Association’s International Conference on Urban Affairs, New York, for which she received a fully-funded international travel grant from Indian Council of Social Science Research.
As a Fulbright-Nehru Doctoral Research Fellow, Aayushi is undertaking a comparative study of the railways in the U.S. to understand the current framework of railway land monetization in India. She is analyzing how lands along the railroads in New York City are currently managed and have historically been monetized. Her research aims to provide insights into the changing role of the state with regard to public lands, contributing to the scholarship on land transformation and state-making. Her interest in learning through storytelling drives her in research and otherwise.