phd
PhD Thesis Title: Homemaking for the Algorithm: Reimagining Households as a Space for ‘Productive’ Work
PhD Supervisor: Elisabeth Prügl and Sungmin Rho
This research project is aimed at intervening and understanding the changing nature of labour in an increasingly capitalist and ever-expanding digital labyrinth. Platformisation of labour has opened new avenues of enquiry, including the performance of “aspirational labour” (Duffy, 2017) by digital content creators on social media. This project specifically looks at the case of Indian women who choose to produce and consume performances of social reproductive labour, such as household chores, on platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook. Care labour, disproportionately performed by women, has historically been confined to the private sphere of the household, remaining uncompensated by both the capitalist structure and the state. With the advent of digital platforms, however, this labour is now being performed publicly and visibilised with the aim of monetisation. In an era of digital capitalism and neoliberal governance, the state has rolled back in terms of welfare provision and market liberalisation while rolling in in terms of surveillance. This project tries to understand why such a phenomenon is gaining traction and what compels women in India to engage and indulge in performing and monetising labour that was earlier limited to the private sphere on social media.
Profile
Sneha Roy is a Swiss Government Excellence Scholar in the Department of International Relations and Political Science. Her current research interests rest at the intersection between capitalism and feminism, specifically looking at algorithmic labour and the platformisation of labour on social media. She is interested in looking at the consequences of the commodification of social reproductive labour performed by Indian women on social media.
Before commencing her PhD at IHEID, she completed her Master’s in Political Science at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi and her Bachelor’s in International Relations at the Jindal School of International Affairs, Sonipat. She also worked as a research assistant at the Centre for Studies of Plural Societies and the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies.
Research Interests7
- Feminist Political Economy
- Social Reproduction Theory
- Algorithmic Labour
Publications and Works
- Inclusive Urban Eco-systems: A Case Study on Street Vending Businesses in Markets of Kolkata, India, Asian Journal of Social Science, Vol. 47, No. 4/5 (2019), pp. 581-606 (26 pages). https://www.jstor.org/stable/26848811
- An Inclusive View to Street Vending in India: Reflections from the Street Markets across Kolkata- https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3254267
- A Comparison Between Women and Men and its Relevance in locating feminism as a Movement in Colonial India, The Daak, August 31, 2023, https://thedaak.in/2023/08/31/a-comparison-between-women-and-men-and-its-relevance-in-locating-feminism-as-a-movement-in-colonial-india/
- Book Review: Performing Representation: Women Members in the Indian Parliament, The Daak, February 15, 2024. https://thedaak.in/2024/02/15/performing-representation-women-members-in-the-indian-parliament/
- Reversing The Male Gaze: The Bread Maker Becomes The Bread Earner, Feminism in India, July 18, 2024. https://feminisminindia.com/2024/07/18/reversing-the-male-gaze-the-bread-maker-becomes-the-bread-earner/
- From Assam to Haryana, arbitrary arrests of social media users make a mockery of the Constitution, June 1, 2025, Scroll: https://scroll.in/article/1083039/from-assam-to-haryana-arbitrary-arrests-of-social-media-users-make-a-mockery-of-the-constitution
- Becoming A Tradwife: Visibility Labour And The Branding Of Care On Social Media, Feminism In India, September 18, 2025. https://feminisminindia.com/2025/09/18/deconstructing-the-tradwife-trend-india/
Fellowship/Grants/ Awards
- Swiss Government Excellence Scholarship (2024-2025)
Affiliations
- Gender Centre, The Graduate Institute, IHEID