Manjari Mahajan is Associate Professor of International Affairs and Co-Director of the India China Institute at The New School. Her research and teaching are on global health, politics of science and technology, international development, and philanthrocapitalism. Her work lies at the intersection of Science and Technology Studies, Public Policy, and Anthropology. Much of her empirical focus has been on India and South Africa, and on global organizations such as the Gates Foundation and the World Health Organization.  Most recently, she has co-edited Constrained Expertise in India and China: Knowledge and Power in Policymaking (2025).

During her GIDEST fellowship, Manjari will ask if the ethical notion of “conflict of interest” is dead. Much of ethics, in biomedical research, as in other walks of life as varied as politics, finance, and science, has turned upon this concept. However, in our current moment of Trump meme tokens and Musk’s hoovering of government data, the notion seems quaint and removed from the tawdry reality of contemporary democracy and knowledge production.

In her project, Manjari will seek to develop a critical genealogy of the precept of "conflict of interest." She will trace the trajectory of this principle - as a set of discourses, practices and instruments - within the realm of biomedical research in the United States over the last six decades. Studying the dilution and death of this ethical principle will serve as a lens through which to explore shifting public values in democracy, including blurring lines between public and private, changing standards of accountability, and evolving conceptions of authoritative knowledge.