Hi! I am a third year PhD student studying Environmental Policy (with a concentration in Political Science) at Duke University.
I graduated from Harvard University with honors in 2015 with a B.A. in Environmental Science and Public Policy and went to work at an education technology start-up for two years in the San Francisco Bay Area. I am a native of Nairobi, Kenya and call Atlanta home.
Research
My research is broadly concerned with institutions, environmental governance, and the politics of public service provision (particularly drinking water). In other projects, I study a variety of topics, including wildlife conservation, climate adaptation, and the water-energy-food nexus. My regional focus is on South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the USA.
Working papers
- CITES: Governance and Power in Wildlife Trade. 2019
- Scaling Back Wildlife Trade in the Mekong: A Look into the Farmer Loophole. 2019
- Institutional Design, Decisionmaking, and California's Oil-Field Produced Water. 2019
- Water Infrastructure and Situated Politics in Bengaluru. 2018
- The Role of Religious Organizations in Urban Water Crises: A Case-Study on Cape Town. 2018
- Untitled: Land Rights and Tenure Security in Urban Slums. 2017
Reports
- "Scaling Back Wildlife Trade in the Mekong Delta: Applying a Political Economy Lens to the Farmer Loophole with a Focus on Vietnam and Laos," (with Edmund Malesky, Songkhun Nillasithanukroh, and Erika Weinthal), prepared for USAID, June 2019. Link.
Resume
Open a link to my resume by clicking the image below.
Contact
I can be reached by email at ekta.patel@duke.edu.