Sarasij Majumder

Sarasij Majumder is an Associate Professor in the Department of Modern and Classical Languages at the University of Houston, serving as the Sita and Bhaskara Rao Mutyala Endowed Professor of India Studies and Director of India Studies. He holds a Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology from Rutgers University, with prior degrees from Delhi School of Economics and University of Calcutta. His research focuses on critical political economy, rural change, migration, and transnational knowledge transfer, particularly in South and Southeast Asia.

Education:

• Ph.D. 2010, Rutgers University, Cultural Anthropology
• M.Phil. 2001, Delhi University, Sociology
• M.A. 1999, Delhi University, Sociology
• B.A. 1996, Calcutta University, Sociology

Research interests include the anthropology of neoliberalism, globalization, agrarian transitions, and media studies. He has conducted fieldwork on land acquisition controversies in India, shrimp cultivation in rural areas, and the impact of outsourcing on tech workers in the U.S. and Australia. His book People's Car: Industrial India and the Riddles of Populism (2018) examines land politics and industrialization in West Bengal.

Awards and grants include the NSF Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant (2007), AIIS Fellowship (2006), and Columbia University's Tarak Nath Das Award (2005). His current project explores transnational knowledge management strategies in global corporations, focusing on labor rights in tech sectors.

Teaching includes courses on linguistic anthropology, Asian capitalisms, and anthropological theory. He advises no listed students but contributes to interdisciplinary teams studying development and urbanization.