Amita Baviskar is a Professor of Environmental Studies and Sociology & Anthropology at Ashoka University in India.  Her research and teaching address the cultural politics of environment and development in rural and urban India.

She received a PhD in Development Sociology from Cornell University and has been a visiting scholar at several universities including Stanford, Cornell, Yale and the University of California. She is the author of In the Belly of the River: Tribal Conflicts over Development in the Narmada Valley and Uncivil City: Ecology, Equity and the Commons in Delhi. She was awarded the 2005 Malcolm Adiseshiah Award for Distinguished Contributions to Development Studies, the 2008 VKRV Rao Prize for Social Science Research, and the 2010 Infosys Prize for Social Sciences.