Sohini Kar

Dr. Sohini Kar is a socio-cultural anthropologist in the Department of Anthropology at the London School of Economics and Political Science, specializing in economic anthropology of South Asia, particularly urban India. Her research examines the impact of financialization on society, with a focus on poverty, labor, and gender dynamics within financial systems.

Dr. Kar earned her MA and PhD in Anthropology from Brown University and held a postdoctoral position as a Harvard College Fellow in the Department of Anthropology at Harvard University before joining LSE. Her academic trajectory reflects a strong foundation in anthropological theory combined with deep regional expertise in South Asia.

Her research interests span economic anthropology, financialization, microfinance, financial inclusion, urban poverty, labor studies, and gender studies. Dr. Kar's work critically examines how financial systems transform social relations, particularly how the poor become integrated into financial markets through microfinance and other financial inclusion initiatives. She investigates the gendered dimensions of finance, exploring how women's bodies and labor become financialized through banking systems and insurance products. Her research also addresses the impact of climate change on urban poor workers in India and emergent forms of social protections.

Dr. Kar's publications reveal a consistent focus on the intersection of finance, poverty, and social relations in India. Her work demonstrates how financialization reshapes social welfare, labor relations, and gender dynamics, with particular attention to how financial systems absorb and transform social critique. Her research spans ethnographic studies of microfinance institutions, analyses of financial inclusion policies, and examinations of gendered financial products.

• 2020 Bernard Cohn Book Prize sponsored by the Association for Asian Studies for Financializing Poverty: Labor and Risk in Indian Microfinance

Dr. Kar is currently pursuing two major research projects: one examining financial activism and how activists influence financial actors to achieve social change, and another investigating the impact of extreme heat on urban poor workers in India and the emergent forms of social protections. Her work bridges anthropological theory with practical implications for financial policy and social welfare systems in the Global South.