Alumni Feature | Bhavani Seetharaman, Master’s in Public Policy ‘16

During Bhavani’s undergraduate Journalism program at Manipal University, she was selected to be a part of the DAAD scholarship exchange program to study in Bremen, Germany. There due to an administrative error she was given the coursework required for political science students instead of journalism and communications. It is due to this serendipitous error that her interests grew towards understanding broader theoretical concepts in the sphere of policy and political science. Hence, with this experience she applied for the Master’s in Public Policy program at NLSIU, where due to the coursework her interests in subjects such as labour rights, research methodology and political economy were strengthened further. The course requirement for fieldwork with MKSS in Rajasthan furthered her interest to undertake qualitative research. Post her graduation she worked in organisations such as the Centre for Budget and Policy Studies (CBPS), Microsoft Research India and had projects with the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Here she undertook research regarding women empowerment programs, education and future of work. All of which she could not have done without the courses she studied under the MPP programme. Currently, Bhavani is a Research Associate at Digital Futures Lab where she continues her interests in the field of technology and society studies. She will also begin her PhD at the University of California, Santa Cruz this fall where she will continue her research on the future of work.