Dolly Daftary
Associate Professor of International Development
Phone: 617.287.4769
Biography
Dolly Daftary’s research focuses on the impact of social and economic change processes on individuals, households, and communities across scale in a global and comparative perspective, grounded in field research in India. Her interdisciplinary approach is informed by political economy, institutional social sciences, and postcolonial studies, and her wer work is focused on the intersection of economic transformation, human and non-human nature, and public goods.
Area of Expertise
Global development, institutional change, social and economic change processes, agrarian studies, environmental studies, market-driven policy paradigms, political economy, artisanal commodities, knowledge and aesthetics, democratic politics, identity and cultural politics, ethnography, measurement
Degrees
PhD, Social Work, Washington University in St. Louis
Graduate Certificate, New Institutional Social Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis
MA, Social Work, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, India
BA (Honors), Economics, Indraprastha College, Delhi University, India
Professional Publications & Contributions
- Daftary, D. (2020). Democratic decentralization, microcredit, and the workings of local government in rural India. Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space.
- Daftary, D. (2020). Cultivating a market like the state: Rural development and democratic decentralization in India. Journal of Asian and African Studies.
- Daftary, D. (2019). Elected local bodies, space, and the governance of market expansion in rural India. Geoforum, 103(July), 105-113.
- Daftary, D. (2019). How democratic decentralisation facilitates, sustains, and interrupts market-driven development in India. Development in Practice, 29(3), 360-370.
- Daftary, D. (2019). Market-driven dairying and the politics of value, labor and affect in Gujarat, India. Journal of Peasant Studies, 46(1), 80-95.
- Daftary, D. (2018). Cattle, milk and women’s labour: The politics of contemporary dairying in Gujarat. Economic & Political Weekly, 53(22): 43-50.
- Daftary, D. (2018). An improvising state: Neoliberal governmentality, gender and caste in Gujarat, India. In Leela Fernandes (Ed.), Feminists rethink the neoliberal state: Inequality, exclusion and change (pp. 179-217). New York, NY: NYU Press.
- Daftary, D. (2018). In 2019, disenchantment with the BJP may not be limited to Gujarat. Economic and Political Weekly, 53(3).
- Daftary, D. (2016). Development in post-liberalization India: Marketization, decentralization and informalization in Gujarat. European Journal of Development Research, 28(4), 690–704.
- Daftary, D. (2014). The politics of person, property and technology: Emergent development practice in semi-arid communities in India. Community Development Journal, 49(4), 573-588.
- Daftary, D. (2014). Development in an era of economic reform in India. Development and Change, 45(4), 710-731.
- Gonzales, E., Morrow-Howell, N., Daftary, D., Stafford, R. & Echols, J. (2013). Career transitions in mid-life: Pursing an MSW as an older student. Gerontology and Geriatrics Education, 35(2), 134-151.
- Daftary, D. (2013). Watershed development and neoliberalism in India’s drylands. Journal of International Development, 26(7), 999-1010.
- Menon, N., & Daftary, D. (2011). The impact of political and social associational membership on political engagement: A comparative investigation of Brazil and India. Journal of International Social Work, 54(1), 81-96.
- Daftary, D. (2010). Democratic decentralization from the bottom up: The comparative effect of wealth and electoral capital on elected leaders’ distribution of development. Social Development Issues, 32(2), 42-54.
- Daftary, D. (2010). Elected leaders, community and development: Evidence on distribution and agency from a case in India. Journal of Development Studies, 46(10), 1692–1707.
- McBride, A. M., Pritzker, S., Daftary, D., & Tang, F. (2006). Youth service: A comprehensive perspective. Journal of Community Practice, 14(4), 71-89.
Additional Information
Dr. Daftary's work has focused on economic change, cultural politics, and political subjectivity. Her current project spans continents and world regions and explores transformations in India’s artisanal economy, with a focus on artisans nested in environmental, pastoral and agrarian milieus. Her work has been recognized with awards from the Taraknath Das Foundation- then at the Southern Asia Institute at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, and the American Institute of Indian Studies. Her writings have appeared in The Wire and The Hindu.
Dr. Daftary is cross-affiliated with the PhD Program in Global Governance and Human Security at the McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies, and the Human Rights Minor in the Department of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies.