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Soma Chaudhuri

Soma Chaudhuri
  • Associate Professor
  • Department of Sociology
  • Co-Director, Center for Gender in Global Context
  • PhD Vanderbilt University, 2008
  • 433B Berkey Hall
  • 509 E. Circle Drive
  • East Lansing, MI 48823
  • 517-353-0874

CURRICULUM VITAE

Soma Chaudhuri

BIOGRAPHY

Soma Chaudhuri is Associate Professor and Co-Director of Center for Gender in Global Context where she leads the global research portfolio. Dr. Chaudhuri is a qualitative methodologist whose research sits at the intersection of gender, development, social movements, and violence. Her work examines how community and household-level violence is used to legitimize structural and institutional gender inequalities, and how such dynamics disproportionately constrain women’s lives. She also studies the role of non-state actors in designing and implementing empowerment initiatives, with particular attention to how these programs shape women’s agency, the conditions under which they succeed, and the reasons they sometimes fall short.

Her current projects include a co-edited volume with scholars across Africa and South Asia that investigates the political and legal challenges surrounding the implementation of anti-rape laws in the Global South. She is also working on a book manuscript that traces how women living within, and, in some cases, moving beyond, abusive relationships create livability through spaces of dignity, meaning, and tactical agency. Drawing on the concept of intersectional consciousness and the support of women’s networks, the book illuminates pathways toward livability even amid profound structural constraint.

Dr. Chaudhuri’s research has been funded by several grants including the National Science Foundation and Social Science Research Council Award.

LINKS

https://somachaudhuri.com/

Center for Gender in Global Context (GenCen)

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

The Witch Studies Reader, 2025. (co-edited volume with Jane Ward) The Witch Studies Reader (dukeupress.edu). Reviewed in: Gender & Society; Journal of the American Academy of Religion; Irish Times; Ms Magazine.

Negotiating with Intersectional Consciousness: Women Leaders and the Everyday Politics of Advocacy in India. (with Alison Colby) Mobilization: An International Journal (forthcoming)

Elizabeth Chacko, Paromita Sanyal, Soma Chaudhuri and Bandana Purkayastha. 2023 Caregiving and Care Receiving Among Asian Indian Immigrants in the USA During the COVID-19 Pandemic. Geographical Review, Vol. 113 (4): 502-514 https://doi-org.proxy1.cl.msu.edu/10.1080/00167428.2023.2196542

Andala Yakubu* and Soma Chaudhuri. 2022. Potential Opportunities and Challenging Realities: Organization’ Experiences while Accessing Resources and Advocating on Behalf of Survivors of Domestic Violence in Ghana. Women’s Studies International Forum. Vol. 94 (September-October): 1-10 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2022.102620

Cobbina-Dungy, Jennifer, Soma Chaudhuri, Ashley Lacourse* and Christina Dejong. 2022. Defund the Police: Perceptions among Protestors in the 2020 March on Washington.  Criminology & Public Policy. Vol. 21 (1): 147-174 (Article highlighted in Research Features: “Black Lives Matter Protests Spark Calls to Defund the Police.” August 26, 2022. Black Lives Matter protests spark calls to defund the police (researchfeatures.com))