Elora Halim Chowdhury
Dr. Chowdhury is Assistant Professor in the Department of Women’s Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston. She holds a Ph.D. in Women’s Studies from Clark University, Massachusetts (2004).
Elora Halim Chowdhury’s areas of specialization include critical development studies, gender and postcoloniality, transnational feminist theory and practice, and women’s social movements in South Asia. Specifically, she has written on the dynamics of women’s transnational organizing in Bangladesh; gender and violence; critical women’s studies pedagogy; and gender and Islam in global politics. She is currently working on a book manuscript titled, ‘Transnationalism Reversed’: Engaging Development, NGO Politics and Women’s Organizing in Bangladesh.
Prior to joining UMass Dr. Chowdhury held appointments at the Ford Foundation, New York and Bangladesh Rural Action Committee (BRAC). She also has several years of experience working as a journalist for the national English language newspaper, The Daily Star in Bangladesh. She has consulted for UNICEF, and Medical Health Research Association (MHRA), New York.
In 2007, Dr. Chowdhury was Co-Principal Investigator in a Ford Foundation grant to host a five-day international conference on Islam and feminisms at UMass Boston (www.engagingislam.umb.edu)
Teaching
Women in Global Perspective (WoSt 110), Asian Women in the U.S. (AsAmSt L228), Introduction to Human Rights (WoSt L295), Gender, Development and Globalization (WoSt L355), Gender, Religion and Politics in South Asia (Honors 290 & WoSt 355), Gender, Nationalism and Politics (Graduate Consortium of Women’s Studies)
Selected publications
“Engaging Islam: Feminisms, Religiosities & Self-Determinations.” Co-editor with Leila Farsakh and Rajini Srikanth special issue of International Feminist Journal of Politics. (Fall 2008).
“Challenges for the Women’s Movement in Bangladesh: Engaging Religion, State and NGO Politics.” Forthcoming in The Role of NGOs in Bangladesh, Farida Khan et al, Editors. Dhaka: University Press, Ltd. (2008)
“Bengali, Bangladeshi yet Muslim” In Living Our Religions. Eds. Bandana Purkayastha and Anjana Narayan. Kumarian Press, 2008.
“From Dhaka to Cincinnati: Tracing the Trajectory of a Transnational Violence Against Women Campaign.” In Body Evidence: Intimate Violence Against South Asian Women in America, Shamita Das Dasgupta, Editor. Rutgers University Press, 2007.
“Geographies of Mourning.” Frontiers: A Journal of Women’s Studies. Vol. 28, No. 3, 2007.
“Negotiating State and NGO Politics in Bangladesh” Violence Against Women: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal. Vol. 13, No. 8, 2007.
“Feminist Negotiations: Contesting Narratives of the Campaign Against Acid Violence in Bangladesh.” Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism. 6.1, 2005.
“Research, Representation & Responsibility: Unraveling the Sixteen Decisions Perspective on ‘Impoverished Bangladeshi Women’.” International Feminist Journal of Politics, 4.3, 2002.
Office: Wheatley, 5th floor, Room 59
Email: Elora.chowdhury@umb.edu
Phone: 617-287-6764
Office Hours: Tues and Thurs 9:30-11:00