Susan Thomas

Susan Thomas serves as Associate Professor of Cultural Foundations of Education at Syracuse University and holds a Senior Research Associate position at the South Asia Center. Her academic background as an educational anthropologist informs her interdisciplinary research at the crossroads of international education, migration studies, and critical university studies, with dedicated regional focus on South Asia and its global diasporas.

Dr. Thomas completed her doctoral studies in Education, Culture, and Society at the University of Pennsylvania, building on her undergraduate foundation in International Affairs from The George Washington University.

Her scholarly inquiry centers on complex dynamics of international education and transnational migration, particularly examining South Asian student experiences through lenses of debt, precarity, race, caste, and resistance. She investigates how structural violence and neoliberal policies shape educational pathways and identities, utilizing ethnographic methodologies to capture nuanced lived realities.

Thomas's recent scholarly output demonstrates consistent thematic focus: her 2024 monograph 'Indebted Mobilities' analyzes Indian youth migration through debt and mobility prisms, while journal articles in Discourse and Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies explore dissent in neoliberal universities and precarious student migrant journeys. Her timely 2025 TIME Magazine article critiques U.S. immigration policies affecting international students, reflecting commitment to public scholarship.

She maintains active professional engagement through memberships in the Comparative and International Education Society, American Studies Association, American Anthropological Association, and Association for Asian American Studies.