Andrea Wright

Background

My research examines the histories of capitalism and its contemporary expressions in South Asia, the Arabian Peninsula, and, more recently, the United States. This research draw upon postcolonial theories of mobility and decolonial theories of community to better understand how labor and energy production shape economies, geo-political dynamics, and social inequalities.

My first book, Between Dreams and Ghosts: Indian Migration and Middle Eastern Oil (Stanford University Press, 2021), is an ethnography of Indian migration to oil and gas projects in the Gulf. More than one million Indians travel annually to work in oil projects in the Gulf; one of the few international destinations where men without formal education can find lucrative employment. Between Dreams and Ghosts follows their migration, from villages in India to oil projects in the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait, and back again. Engaging all parties involved—the migrants themselves, the recruiting agencies that place them, the government bureaucrats that regulate their emigration, and the corporations that hire them—this book examines labor migration as a socio-cultural process that reshapes global capitalism. You can read more about Between Dreams and Ghosts on Jadaliyya or Maidaanam. Or you can listen to a discussion about the book on the New Books Network, Project on Middle East Political Science (POMEPS) Podcast, or the Lekh Podcast.

My second book, Unruly Labor: A History of Oil in the Arabian Sea (Stanford University Press, October 2024), explores strikes at oil projects in Iran and the Arabian Peninsula from 1930s to the 1970s — a period that includes the end of formal British colonialism and imperialism in the Gulf and South Asia and the development of new state governments in both of those areas. During this period, workers’ rights were curtailed as states and corporations increasingly associated oil with national security. Examining relations among oil companies, local governments, imperial governments, and workers, Unruly Labor illuminates the multiple ways workers built solidarities to agitate for better working conditions and how worker actions informed shifting understandings of rights and citizenship.

I’m currently conducting research for two projects. One project uses archival materials and oral histories to understand the global legacies of the Taft-Hartley Act (1947). In the United States, this act that greatly restricted the power of unions and the efficacy of worker strikes, and these restrictions were subsequently written into labor laws in many countries. My research focuses on how multinational corporations used laws suits, political advisors, and economic pressure to influence the writing of these labor laws. I am interested in how these labor laws worked in conjunction with changing societal perspectives on labor and citizenship to depoliticize labor in the second half of the twentieth century and early twenty-first century. My other research project explores variations in global infrastructure development through comparing green energy initiatives in the United States, India, and Kuwait. Using ethnographic methods, I look at how ethnonationalism, historical narratives, and religious beliefs shape the development of green energy projects as well as local community responses to these projects.

Publications

Unruly Labor: A History of Oil in the Arabian Sea, Stanford: Stanford University Press, October 2024.

“Shifting Solidarities: Strikes, Indian Labor, and the Arabian Sea Oil Industry, 1946–1953,” in Life Worlds of Middle Eastern Oil: Histories and Ethnographies of Black Gold, edited by Mandana Limbert and Nelida Fuccaro, 251–274. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2023

Between Dreams and Ghosts: Indian Migration and Middle Eastern Oil, Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2021.

“From Slaves to Contract Workers: Genealogies of Consent and Security in Indian Labor Migration,” Journal of World History 32 no. 1 (2021): 29-43.

“Making Kin from Gold: Dowry, Gender, and Indian Labor Migration to the Gulf,” Cultural Anthropology 35 no. 3 (2020): 435-461.

“Imperial Labour: Strikes, Security, and the Depoliticization of Oil Production,” in South Asian Migrations: A Global History: Labor, Law, and Wayward Lives, edited by Neilesh Bose, 63-84. New York: Bloomsbury, 2020.

“‘The Immoral Traffic in Women’: Regulating Indian Emigration to the Persian Gulf,” in Borders and Mobility in South Asia and Beyond, edited by Reece Jones and Md. Azmeary Ferdoush, 145-166. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2018.

Select Media

Salovaara, Isabel M. “Spirits and Substances of Modernity: An Interview with Andrea Wright.” Supplementals, Fieldsights, January 20, 2021.

“Voices of the Middle East and North Africa: Interview with Andrea Wright,” KPFA, first broadcast on June 10, 2020.

“No Good Options for Migrant Workers in Gulf COVID-19 Lockdown,” Middle East Report Online, April 30, 2020.

Education

PhD, Anthropology & History, University of Michigan
MA, Anthropology & History, University of Michigan
MA, Social Sciences, University of Chicago
BA, Anthropology & Art History, University of Michigan

Courses Offered

Anthropology:
ANTH 150: Culture and Migration
ANTH 202: Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
ANTH 300: History of Anthropological Theory
ANTH 350: Anthropology of the State
ANTH 350: Global Movements for Justice and Rights
ANTH 645: Historical Anthropology

Asian & Middle Eastern Studies:
AMES 250: Introduction to Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
AMES 390: Oil in the Middle East
AMES 390: Transnational South Asia (cross listed in APIA)
AMES 390: Human Rights in Global Perspective (cross listed in APIA)
AMES 493: Asian and Middle Eastern Studies Senior Capstone

Asian & Pacific Islander American Studies:
APIA 450: Transnational South Asia (cross listed in AMES)
APIA 450: Human Rights in Global Perspective (cross listed in AMES)
APIA 499: Asian and Pacific Islander American Studies Senior Capstone