Smitha Radhakrishnan

My empirical research has examined work, 身份, 金融, 债务, international development in 印度, 美国.S.美国和南非. I specialize in qualitative methods, especially ethnography and interviews. In my classroom and in my writing, I pay particular attention to how contemporary forms of racial, 种姓, class, 性别 inequality are products of the interconnected geopolitical legacies of colonialism, 奴隶制, 和冷战. I strive to situate individual experiences within the dynamics of a world system while always keeping an eye on building a world that better serves the global majority.

我最近的一本书， Making Women Pay: Micro金融 in Urban 印度, examines the taken-for-granted practices of commercial micro金融 institutions in urban 印度, a sector that reaches over 40 million poor and working class women through small, 高利率的贷款. Through interviews and ethnographic work in 印度 和美国, this project investigates how exploitative financial practices expand to vulnerable populations while ensuring profit for lending institutions.This book has received the 2023 Honorable Mention from the ASA Sex and Gender Section and the 2024 Alice Amsden Distinguished Book Honorable Mention.

Another two recent co-authored books demonstrate my theoretical and conceptual commitments to advance a truly global sociology. The Gender Order of Neoliberalism (《皇冠体育》，2023年，Cinzia D .. Solari) advances a multipolar, feminist understanding of contemporary neoliberalism, drawing from historical and empirical analyses of the former Soviet Union, 印度, 菲律宾, 和美国. This book has received the 2024 Immanuel Wallerstein Award from the ASA’s Political Economy of World Systems Section. 我的编辑卷与博士. Gowri Vijayakumar, 社会学 of South Asia: Postcolonial Legacies, Global Imaginaries (帕尔格雷夫麦克米伦, 2022) envisions how the discipline of sociology may be transformed when we place the region of South Asia at the center of our empirical analyses.

我的第一本书， Appropriately 印度n: Gender and Culture in a Transnational Class 杜克大学出版社, 2011) was a multi-网站d ethnographic examination of transnational 印度n information technology (IT) workers. 以前, I studied the cultural politics of post-apartheid 南非, based on extensive research with 南非n 印度n communities in Durban and its surrounding townships.

目前, I am working on a large multi-网站d interview-based study of household 债务 in Uttarakhand, 印度和德班, 南非. Data collection for this project is currently underway with collaborators in these respective locations.

在韦尔斯利, I teach courses that examine globalization, 比赛, 性别, 还有散居研究, 在其他主题中. I have produced three massively open online courses on the edX platform: 全球社会学, 全球不平等, 全球社会变革. The educational materials I developed have reached thousands of learners around the world. On campus, I advocate for anti-racist transformation in our education system. I have served on numerous committees to advance the goals of inclusive excellence on our campus. 目前, I am director of the Ann Maurer ‘51 Public Speaking Program. 通过这个角色, I aim to advance public speaking as a form of inquiry at the center of a liberal arts education.

除了我的学术生涯, I perform and promote classical and contemporary 印度n 跳舞 forms, 尤其是或是. 2015年，我成立 NATyA跳舞 在纳蒂克. I direct the performing ensemble NATyA舞蹈团 and offer classes for children and adults.

教育

• A.B., University of California (Berkeley)
• M.A., University of California (Berkeley)
• Ph.D., University of California (Berkeley)