Dr. Phadke's research and teaching interests focus on international environmental politics and policies. Her work over the last decade has focused on how river basin technologies, such as dams and canals, can be more sustainably and democratically designed and managed. Here most recent research, based in the Krishna River basin in India, has examined how engineers and political activists have been re-designing dams so that they embody more local knowledge, ecological sensibility and better engineering expertise. Her articles have appeared in Society & Natural Resources, Science, Technology & Human Values and in the Indian journal Seminar. Through new avenues of research on water and energy, particularly around wind power and desalination, she will be exploring research sites in the US, northern Europe and the Middle East.
Dr. Phadke received her Ph.D. in Environmental Studies in 2003 at University of California, Santa Cruz. In addition, she has a B.A. in Political Science from Wellesley College and an M.A. in South Asian Studies from Cornell University. She was a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow in the Science, Technology, and Society Program at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
Dr. Phadke brings to her academic work a range of political engagements with non-governmental groups including Cultural Survival, the National Wildlife Federation and ASHA for education. She is also active in the field of study abroad and currently serves a member of the Board of Trustees for the International Honors Program (IHP), a comparative study aboard organization affiliated with the School for International Training (SIT).
