Charitra Pabbaraju (she/they) is completing her MPhil in development studies at the University of Oxford, where her thesis explores the technological turn to the developmental state’s bureaucracy, with multiple and contradictory effects on ethnic violence and criminalization. Her thesis is supported by the APSA Centennial Center, and builds upon her work at the Harvard Humanitarian Initative’s Signal program. She currently serves as a project manager for the Emory Oppression-Resistance Lab, researching state justifications for the use of violence and resulting trajectories of governance. As an undergraduate, Pabbaraju studied political science and english & creative writing at Emory University as a Robert Woodruff Dean’s Achievement Scholar, researching how states carve out citizenship across gender and ethnicity with her thesis. Pabbaraju has worked as a grassroots journalist, at think tanks including the Carter Center and the Institute for Developing Nations, and government organizations including USAID, to address the policy praxis divide.
The APSA Diversity Fellowship Program (DFP) is a fellowship competition for individuals from underrepresented backgrounds applying to or in the early stages of doctoral programs in political science. The DFP was established in 1969 (originally as the Black Graduate Fellowship) to increase the number of minority scholars in the discipline. This year’s funded fellows will receive $5,000, over two years to support their studies.