News from CASI
CASI is excited to announce the launch of its brand new website!
INDIA IN TRANSITION
CASI Deep Dive: Tariq Thachil on CASI and the Complex Challenge of Studying India in the United States
Tariq Thachil & Rohan Venkat
May 28, 2025
In this issue of India in Transition, as CASI Director Tariq Thachil prepares to step down from his role next month, CASI Managing Editor Rohan Venkat speaks to him about building research bridges between India and the US, why American political science can sometimes miss the mark on India, and how running a center like CASI has become a far more complex—and consequential—task.
Meet CASI's Spring 2025 Visiting Scholars
As we head into the summer, hear the stories and experiences of the two Spring 2025 Visiting Scholars we had the privilege of hosting this semester: Jahnavi Phalkey and Lubaina Rangwala.
CASI in the News
CASI Director Tariq Thachil and CASI Non-Resident Scholar Adam Auerbach (SAIS, JHU) were awarded the 2025 Francine Frankel Prize for Best Book from the South Asia Politics Section of the American Political Science Association, for their co-authored book, Migrants and Machine Politics: How India's Urban Poor Seek Representation and Responsiveness (Princeton University Press, 2023). The award honors recent books written on South Asian politics. Francine Frankel is Founding Director of CASI and Professor Emerita of Political Science, University of Pennsylvania.
CASI Non-Resident Scholar Milan Vaishnav (CEIP) released "Operation Sindoor and South Asia’s Uncertain Future," a May 13, 2025 episode of his podcast Grand Tamasha. In the episode, he hosts former CASI Security Studies Workshop participant Christopher Clary (University of Albany).
CASI Non-Resident Scholar and 2022-24 CASI Postdoctoral Research Fellow Sarath Pillai (Southern Methodist University) published "From International to Imperial: The Indian Princely States, International Law, and the Ends of Empire in South Asia" in the May 23, 2025 issue of Leiden Journal of International Law.
CASI congratulates Research Assistant and Summer 2022 intern Manya Gupta, C‘25, Political Science and Economics on being one of two co-winners of the Leo S. Rowe Prize for best Political Science thesis submitted on a topic related to comparative politics and/or international relations. She also won the annual Holden Furber Prize (designed to promote and recognize excellence in undergraduate research as it relates to South Asia) for her senior thesis "Hidden Ingredients: Examining the Influence of Gender and Culture in Adopting Clean Cooking Fuels in India." Manya, who is also a Penn World Scholar, additionally received the undergraduate First Honorable Mention for the 2025 ISSS Penn Global Student Citizenship Award.
CASI Student Programs
2025 Summer Interns and Summer Research Funds recipients are preparing their summer projects!
Read all about their experiences on the CASI Student Programs Blog!
Questions about CASI Student Programs?
Please contact casi@sas.upenn.edu
Campus Location
CASI's office is located close to the heart of Penn's campus at the Ronald O. Perelman Center for Political Science & Economics at 133 South 36th Street (Suite 230) Philadelphia, PA 19104-6215.