I am an Associate Professor of Politics & Global Studies at the University of Virginia, where I teach comparative politics and global development. My research examines local governance and citizen–state relations, particularly between and beyond elections. I study when and how citizens make claims for welfare, security, and justice—and how public officials and institutions respond. My work focuses regionally on South Asia, with comparative interests in Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa. 

I am the author of Claiming the State: Active Citizenship & Social Welfare in India (Cambridge University Press, 2018), co-author (with Janice Gallagher and Whitney Taylor) of Claim-Making in Comparative Perspective: Everyday Citizenship Practice and its Consequences (Cambridge Elements, 2024), and co-editor (with Poulami Roychowdury) of Unequal Contagion: Citizenship, Democracy, and Politics of Covid-19 in India (forthcoming, Oxford University Press). My articles appears in the journals American Political Science Review, Comparative Politics, Comparative Political Studies, Economic & Political Weekly, Perspectives on Politics, Science, World Development, and World Politics.

Prior to joining University of Virginia, I was an Assistant Professor at Boston College, and an Academy Scholar at the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies. I received my PhD in Political Science and my Masters in International Development Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a BA in Sociology and Anthropology from Swarthmore College.

My CV can be found here.
You can reach me at gabi_at_virginia.edu.