In my doctoral research, I analyse the rental housing experiences of Indigenous migrant women from the Northeast Indian borderlands who have migrated to the metropolitan city of Bengaluru. In the absence of public rental housing, the private rental market addresses a key housing need of migrant communities in urban India. However, for Indigenous migrant women, their rental houses are spaces where they experience racial harassment, sexual violence, and intrusive surveillance by landlords. I use qualitative research methods to analyse how power dynamics within landlord-tenant relationships shape rental housing experiences of Indigenous migrant women, and how they navigate and resist their marginalisation in the private rental housing market.

Mohandas, M. & Purayil, V. P. (2023). ‘Aestheticization of Poverty’ and ‘Manufactured Consent’: How Power Imbalances Between Stakeholders Led to the Failure of the Kannankund ‘Model Village’ Housing Rehabilitation Project. Environment and Urbanization ASIA, 14(1), 142-157.

Public Scholars Initiative (PSI) Award, 2024
Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships,
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), 2023 – 2026
Institute of Asian Research (UBC) Travel Grant, 2023
Brahm Weisman Memorial Scholarship, University of British Columbia, 2022 & 2024
H. Peter Oberlander Scholarship in Community and Regional Planning, University of British Columbia, 2022 & 2023
Partnership Engage Grant, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), with Dr. Julia Harten and the Indian Housing Federation, 2022
President’s Academic Excellence Initiative PhD Award, University of British Columbia, 2021, 2022, 2023, & 2024
4 Year Fellowship (4YF), University of British Columbia, 2021 – 2025
Faculty of Applied Science Graduate Award, University of British Columbia, 2021
International Tuition Award, 2021 & 2022
3rd Prize, Berkeley Essay Writing Competition, University of California, Berkeley, 2015