Hello, everyone!

My name is Richa Desai (pronounced Ree-cha, she/her). I’ll be entering my senior year this fall! My majors are computational biology and anthropology, and I’m also working towards the global health certificate. 

My research project integrates the varied perspectives I developed between both of my majors. Using the 1896 bubonic plague outbreak in colonial Bombay as a case study, I am investigating modes of epidemiological knowledge production and how they are related to ideas about race and the tropics in India. Some key questions I bring to my research are: 

• “What are the kinds of empirical evidence that plague research labs in Bombay pay attention to?” 
• “What sorts of evidence do different forms of imperial administration privilege when considering theories of bubonic plague transmission?”
• “How does the structure of imperial administration play into the medical knowledge produced in colonial Bombay at this time in history?”

Recently, I had the incredible chance to travel to the UK through the London Field Studies Program! I spent two weeks in the archives at the British Library and Wellcome Collection, accessing rare materials and collections that add depth and breadth to the research I’ve been developing for a year. My mentor, Dr. Joseph Alter in the Anthropology Department, is an invaluable resource who helps me center my work on concerns about the body and imperial power. While the politics of the 1896 bubonic plague in colonial Bombay is a widely researched topic, I hope to contribute a perspective critical of the empirical data produced at the height of this controversy. I pay special attention to the pipeline of the politicization of data in various contexts to advance specific theories about plague transmission in line with hegemonic ideas about race and climate. My research addresses contemporary ideas around data science and questions the infallibility of what we think to be “objective data” using a historical lens.

I came into undergrad with applied math and computational biology majors, certain I wanted to research protein modeling in drug development. After coursework in history and anthropology, I realized I had questions about the social and political underpinnings of science. After undergrad, I would love to continue conducting research. I’m super interested in master’s programs in the UK, especially since most of the research for this project is in conversation with scholars at universities in England and Scotland. I eventually would love to work towards a Ph.D. in the anthropology of science. In terms of pursuing these goals, the Brackenridge Research Fellowship is a great way for me to engage with a cohort of motivated researchers across disciplines with my research questions as well as explore graduate school opportunities through professional workshops.

Throughout this process, I have had amazing mentors and opportunities! I feel immensely supported and listened to, and I would love to one day provide the mentorship and support that I received to another undergrad at the beginning of their research project as well.