Patrick Heller is the Lyn Crost Professor of Social Sciences and professor of Sociology and International Studies. He is the director of the development research program at the Watson Institute of International Studies and Public Affairs. His main area of research is the comparative study of social inequality and democratic deepening. He is the author of The Labor of Development: Workers in the Transformation of Capitalism in Kerala, India (Cornell 1999) and co-author of Social Democracy and the Global Periphery (Cambridge 2006), Bootstrapping Democracy: Transforming Local Governance and Civil Society in Brazil (Stanford 2011) and most recently, Deliberation and Development: Rethinking the Role of Voice and Collective Action in Unequal Societies.  He has published articles on urbanization, comparative democracy, social movements, development policy, civil society and state transformation. His most recent project, Cities of Delhi, conducted in collaboration with the Centre for Policy Research, explores the dynamics of governance and social exclusion in India’s capital.

He teaches Theory and Research in Development (DEVL 2000), Contemporary Sociological Theory (SOC 2050), Comparative Political Sociology (SOC 2970), the Sociology of Power (2961D) and Globalization and Social Conflict (SOC 1620).