Soma Chaudhuri is Associate Professor of Sociology (College of Social Science), and Co-Director of Global Research, Outreach and Engagement for the Center for Gender in Global Context (International Studies and Programs), a center with 359 affiliates across 18 colleges and 85 units, at Michigan State University. She served as the inaugural DEI Coordinator for the Department of Sociology from summer 2021 to spring 2024.
Dr. Chaudhuri is affiliate faculty with Asian Studies Center, Muslim Studies Center and Asian Pacific American Studies on campus. Dr. Chaudhuri completed her PhD in sociology from Vanderbilt University, MA in Sociology from Center for the Study of Social Systems (CSSS) at Jawaharlal Nehru University New Delhi, and a BA in sociology at Presidency College Kolkata.
Dr. Chaudhuri’s research lies at the intersection of gender, development, social movements and violence. She is a qualitative methodologist whose expertise ranges from interview and focus group methods, and capacity building around international research teams. Some of her most current projects where she has been a PI or Lead PI have been funded by National Science Foundation (efficacy of grassroots empowerment programs aimed towards women’s leadership capacity building, and impact on domestic violence) and Social Science Research Council (impact of pandemics on migrant precarity). Her research has been published in some of the leading sociology and interdisciplinary journals such as American Journal of Sociology, Mobilization, Sociology of Development, and Criminology & Public Policy. Her most current project is a coedited (with Jane Ward) 32-chapter volume forthcoming with Duke University Press titled The Witch Studies Reader that has contributions from 45-scholars located across the globe.
Dr. Chaudhuri holds elected positions at the American Sociological Association’s Sex & Gender Section (Secretary and Treasurer), and Collective Behavior and Social Movement section (Membership, Diversity and Inclusion). She serves on the editorial boards of Sociology of Development journal and International Journal of Sociology.