Mahua Sarkar

Mahua Sarkar is a Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Toronto, where she joined the faculty in 2021. Prior to this, she served as Professor of Sociology and Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Binghamton University. Her academic work bridges sociology, gender studies, and global political economy.

Education:

• PhD in Sociology and Comparative International Development from Johns Hopkins University

Research Focus: Professor Sarkar's interdisciplinary research explores:

• Contemporary guest-work regimes, particularly Bangladeshi male migrants
• Gestational surrogacy as racialized/gendered labor
• Free and unfree labor under global capitalism
• Religious nationalisms in South Asia
• Muslim and Hindu identity formation in colonial Bengal
• Epistemological debates in qualitative research

Publications & Projects: She is currently completing a monograph Bidesh Kara (Going Abroad): Bangladeshi Contract Migrants and Contemporary Guest Work. Her edited volume Work out of Place and numerous articles in journals like European Journal of Sociology and History and Memory demonstrate her expertise in global labor systems and gender dynamics.

Awards & Fellowships:

• France-ILO Chair and Fellowship at the Institut d’Etudes Avancées de Nantes
• EURIAS/Marie Curie Fellowship at the Wissenschaftskolleg, Berlin
• Fellowship at Re:work, Humboldt University
• Visiting Senior Fellowship at the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore

Leadership: Professor Sarkar serves as series editor for Work in Global and Historical Perspective (De Gruyter Oldenbourg) and participates in the international feminist research network Epistemologies of Care (Duke University/University of Amsterdam).