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Faculty
Bandana Purkayastha
Professor of Sociology
and Asian-American Studies
Education:
PhD, University of Connecticut, 1999
MS, University of Massachusetts, 1987
BA, University of Calcutta, 1978 |
Biographical Statement: I am interested in the intersections of gendering and racism in the US and within transnational contexts. The characteristics of my scholarship are its emphasis on social life shaped by transnational processes, a methodological emphasis on the standpoint of the marginalized, and its melding of theoretical insights from scholars in the US with those of “Southern” countries. My publications are thematically diverse, including topics such as religion and racism, transnationalism and ethnicity, social life in virtual spaces, violence and peace, and human rights, but these strands reflect my central concerns about intersecting marginalizations. My empirical research mostly focuses on understudied groups such as highly educated, middle-class, non-white South Asian Americans in the US who are racialized as affluent non-whites, the middle class Canadian migrants who are widely regarded by Americans to be “just like us,” and Hindu and Muslim women. My research connects sub-disciplinary specialties in sociology: race and ethnic minority relations, sex and gender, race/class/gender, migration and inequalities, peace and war, and human rights. This sociological work also contributes to the interdisciplinary fields of Asian American Studies and Women’s Studies. I have published seven books and over 30 articles and chapters in countries such as the US, UK, India, and Germany.
I was the Deputy Editor of Gender & Society (2006-2011), and I continue to serve on the editorial board of the Journal of South Asian Diasporas. I have served as a panel reviewer for the National Science Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities. I am current a Vice President of Research Committee (RC) -01 (Armed Conflict and Conflict Resolution), and the secretary for RC-32 (Women in Society) of the International Sociological Association. I have served on several councils and committees of the American Sociological Association and Sociologists for Women in Society.
I enjoy traveling and have visited the UK, France, Canada, Netherlands, Mexico, South Africa, Australia, Germany, Nepal, Singapore, Japan, Turkey, Spain, Italy, Austria, and Greece. I grew up in India and continue to visit family and friends there once a year. I enjoy a variety of painting styles and “folk” crafts. I read everything from detective novels to historical fiction. |
Selected Recent Publications
Glasberg, Davita, Purkayastha, Bandana and Armaline, William (eds.). 2011. Human Rights In Our Backyard: Injustice and Resistance in the US. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Narayan, Anjana and Purkayastha, Bandana. 2009. Living Our Religions: South Asian Hindu and Muslim Women narrate their experiences. Stirling, VA: Kumarian Press.
Caforio, Giuseppe, Kuemmel, Gerhard, and Purkayastha, Bandana. (eds.) 2008. Armed Conflict and Conflict Resolution: Sociological Perspectives. Bingley, UK: Emerald Group.
Purkayastha, Bandana. 2005. Negotiating Ethnicity: Second-generation South Asian Americans Traverse a Transnational World. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.
Narayan, Anjana, Purkayastha, Bandana, and Banerji, Sudipto. (2011). Constructing Virtual, transnational identities on the web: The case of Hindu student groups in the US and UK. Journal of Intercultural Studies, 32: 495517.
Narayan, Anjana and Purkayastha, Bandana. 2011. Talking Gender Superiority in Virtual Spaces. Journal of South Asian Diasporas, 3: 53-69.
Purkayastha, B. 2010. Interrogating Intersectionality: Contemporary globalization and racialized gendering in the lives of highly educated South Asian Americans and their children. Journal of Intercultural Studies, 31:29-47.
Purkayastha, Bandana. (forthcoming 2011) Imagining pan-Asia: Tagore from a 21st century perspective. Commemorative Volume on Tagore: 150th year retrospective. Kolkata: Visva Bharati. |
Important Professional Positions
Deputy Editor, Gender and Society , 2006- 2011.
Panel Reviewer: NSF, NEH
International Sociological Association: Vice President, Research Committee 01 (Armed Conflict and Conflict Resolution); Secretary/ Treasurer, Board, Research Committee 32 (Women in Society),.
American Sociological Association: Jessie Bernard Award Committee; Council, Section on Asia and Asian American, |
Curriculum Vitae
Asian-American Studies Institute
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University of Connecticut |