Dr. Dana Kornberg’s research investigates the cultural politics of environmental institutions in both the United States and urban India, examining how racial and caste inequalities are institutionalized, experienced, and resisted. Her work spans analyses of territorial stigma and infrastructure in Detroit, resistance during the Flint water crisis, and the postcolonial dimensions of urban development and waste management in Delhi. Her current book project, based on over 20 months of ethnographic research in India, explores how informal recycling systems persist amid privatization. As an instructor, she connects social theory with lived experience, encouraging students to link analysis with social change.
