Professor of the Department of Political Science.  She is a comparativist with research and teaching interests in democracy and democratization, ethnicity and nationalism, and political economy of development; especially with reference to South Asia and Sri Lanka.  She earned her doctorate in Politics (International Studies) from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi (1985).  She was  awarded the Pew Faculty of Fellowship in International Affairs, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, 1990-1991; and has been Research Fellow and Visiting Scholar at California Institute of Technology, University of California, Los Angeles, and University of California at Berkley  She has edited The Post-Colonial States of South Asia: Democracy, Identity, Development and Security, with A. Jeyaratnam Wilson and is the author of numerous research articles and book chapters.