Meet the Team

Suzanne Hanchett is a social/cultural anthropologist with a Ph.D. from Columbia University. She did her Ph.D. dissertation research in Karnataka State, India, and taught for 10 years at three places: Queens College (City University of New York), Bard College, and Barnard College. She also has published books on her ethnographic research in India and Bangladesh. 

Maxine Weisgrau is co-president of IWAC with her longtime friend and colleague Suzanne Hanchett. She holds a PhD in anthropology, and has studied and taught development and gender issues inspired by fieldwork in Rajasthan, India on local NGOs. She currently has teaching appointments at Columbia University's School of International Affairs (SIPA) and Baruch College.

Elizabeth Chen (she/they) is a proud alumni of the City College of New York at the City University of New York (CUNY) where they received their BA in Philosophy and Anthropology and the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) where they received their MSc in Social Anthropology. As a prospective PhD candidate, Elizabeth's research interests include informality, affect, economic imagination, hope, and resistance.

Chahak Agrawal (she/her) holds an MSc in Social Anthropology from the London School of Economics and a BA (Hons) in English from Lady Shri Ram College, New Delhi.

With experience in digital marketing and copywriting, her research interests span digital anthropology, technology, authority, big data, and language.