Mrinalini Tankha is Assistant Professor of Anthropology. She received her PhD in anthropology from Brandeis University and BA in economics and MA in sociology from the University of Delhi, India. She is an economic and design anthropologist with research interests in money, technology, and international development. Dr. Tankha looks at the effects of financial crises and economic exclusion on the everyday lives of communities in Cuba, Latin America, the Caribbean, and the United States. Her work is historically informed and shows how people craft new forms of value and belonging in the face of economic instability. Dr. Tankha is currently leading a project on the uses of cryptocurrency in Cuba. She is also interested in how ethnography can be used for designing better services and systems to combat socioeconomic disparities and injustice. To that end, she is co-designer of Loy Loy: The Savings Game, a financial education board game.
Selected Works:
Courses Taught:
- Anth 300U The Modern World in Anthropological Perspective
- Anth 305 Culture and Power
- Anth 311U Peoples and Cultures of Latin America
- Anth 340 Design, Politics and Society
- Anth 412/512 Ethnographic Methods
- Anth 415/515 Applied Anthropology
- Anth 416/516 Urban Anthropology
- Anth 440/540 Design Anthropology
- Anth 431/531 Topics in Latin America in Ethnography