Dr. Rajesh Venugopal is an associate professor at the Department of International Development at the London School of Economics and Political Science. His research areas include the politics of development and ethnic conflict, particularly in South Asia. He has written about ethnocracy, neoliberalism, natural disasters, mass panics, and the importance of political sensitivity in development projects. Dr. Venugopal is the author of ‘Nationalism, Development, and Ethnic Conflict in Sri Lanka’ and previously studied, worked, and taught at the University of Oxford and the University of York.