Malay Kotal is a doctoral student at the Department of Geography, Environment & Society at the University of Minnesota (UMN). He is an urban geographer by training, and his research interest revolves around studying the circulation of rural migrant laborers, the production of new geographies, and the building of their lives on the move. Prior to joining UMN, he worked as a Research Associate (RA) in multiple research institutes, such as the Center for Migration and Inclusive Development, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, and the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations. During his tenure as RA, he worked on multiple research projects on labor market dynamics, delivery of low-income housing, production of informal urban spaces, and land politics in the cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Bhubaneswar, Kochi, Indore, and Bengaluru in the Global South. Malay holds an M.A. degree in Geography from Jawaharlal Nehru University and a B.A. (Honors) degree in Geography from Vidyasagar University. He was also awarded as an Urban Fellow at the Indian Institute for Human Settlements. He is from Kushchati, a small village located in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal.