GovindanO Collaboration Biography

The place I will focus on is Chennai's coastline, which will likely include multiple physical locations. One of the dominant themes in my research is the idea of the coast as a constantly shifting space where land and sea meet. This idea of the coast as a place in flux has become a metaphor in academic and popular discourses to index climate risk, infrastructural changes, and competing claims over the coast. It is a bit contrived to think about the coast as a place in this manner, and I will likely tease apart the tensions that come with it by looking at: a) the interface between land and sea as making place; b) infrastructure (industrial and speculative) as ordering the typologies of place on the coast; c) place-making based on identity and social relations.