Kanchan Chandra

Kanchan Chandra is an Associate Professor in the Department of Politics at New York University, a position she took up in 2005, after four years on the faculty of the Department of Political Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

In the nine years since she earned her Ph.D. in government at Harvard University (2000), she has already established herself as a leader in her field and an innovative and energetic researcher. Her first book, Why Ethnic Parties Succeed: Patronage and Ethnic Headcounts in India (Cambridge UP, 2004), was hailed as a landmark study, combining theory and empirical analysis to examine why people choose to vote on the basis of one ethnic identity when alternatives are available, and the effects of that choice. That theme has informed many of her articles, including “Cumulative Findings in the Study of Ethnic Politics,” APSA-CP, 12, No. 1 (2001); "Ethnic Parties and Democratic Stability,” Perspectives on Politics, 3, No. 2 (2005); and “What is Ethnic Identity and Does it Matter?” Annual Review of Political Science, 9 (2006). During her Guggenheim Fellowship term, she will be working on her next book, on the subject of ethnic diversity and democracy.

Ms. Chandra’s many honors include Fellowships from the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, the Russell Sage Foundation, and the Carnegie Foundation, and her work has been supported by the National Science Foundation.