As someone interested in questions of class and living in a period of growing inequality, I am compelled to ask why democracies have been unable to generate movements or political parties that address these concerns and organise around economic identities. Instead, across many democracies, we are witnessing a resurgence of cultural identity and political mobilisation centred on it. My recent research points to a contradiction between democracy and development in the context of widening inequality in the United States and India. In this presentation, I aim to examine the widening inequality and to reflect on what political representation can—and cannot—achieve in addressing it.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Sejuti Das Gupta is an Associate Professor in the Comparative Cultures and Politics. She completed her doctoral studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. She received the Felix Scholarship to conduct her doctoral research in Development Studies. Her book Class, Politics and Agrarian Policies in Post-Liberalisation India was published by Cambridge University Press in 2024. Das Gupta has also co-edited Contradictions of Democracy, Development and Inequality: A Case of India (Routledge 2025).
Trained in political science, she shifted to Development Studies to conduct interdisciplinary research and is trained in empirical research. Her core interest is to contribute towards combining theory and practice for a better understanding of social science. She has worked at the grassroots level in India on issues of mining and land acquisition. Her current research focus is the impact of COVID on women and their work in Lansing, Michigan. She was recently awarded a Regional Economic Initiative grant to conduct research on the pandemics effect on women's work in Michigan on a formal-informal continuum.
