Gowri Vijayakumar

I am an Assistant Professor of Sociology and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Brandeis University, affiliated South Asian Studies.

I specialize in the sociology of gender & sexuality, globalization, and social movements.  My work draws inspiration from transnational feminist, postcolonial, and queer theory.  Most of my work has focused on India, but my research has also taken me to Kenya, South Africa, and Bangladesh, and I bring a global perspective to all of my writing and teaching.

My first book, tentatively titled States of Crisis: AIDS and Sexual Politics in Global India, traces the politics of the global AIDS crisis and the relationships among activists, donors, and state officials that made up the AIDS response.  The project draws on a year of participant observation and over 150 in-depth interviews across India and Kenya, focusing on the activism of sex workers and sexual minorities around and beyond AIDS. In a previous project, I examined how gender shaped young people’s articulations of their aspirations in relation to the global knowledge economy in a small town outside Bangalore. I bring to my research and teaching my experiences working with NGOs in the areas of reproductive health, primary education, and gender and sexuality.

My work appears in Gender & Society, Qualitative Sociology, World Development, Global Labour Journal, and Social Problems.  It has been funded by the National Science Foundation and the Social Science Research Council.