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.

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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.

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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