Capitalist market reforms in China and India have altered socio-political landscapes, triggering the transformation of the citizenship regime in each country. The dissertation addressed two closely related questions. Firstly, it aimed to identify what citizenship regimes have been instituted in the law and practiced on a day-to-day basis in contemporary China and India, and examined how each diverges from Western European citizenship regimes. Secondly, by comparing and contrasting the trajectories of citizenship development in China and India, the project aimed to clarify and contribute to the theoretical understanding of the relationship between capitalist development and citizenship development. Irene's 2014 summer fellowship project was titled, "Project Title: Becoming Citizens: Construction Workers in Beijing and Delhi."
Research Interests: Citizenship, labor, internal migrants, development, and comparative research in China and India.