Jyoti Sinha

I came to the United States in 2007 from India as a newly married immigrant woman, accompanying my husband. At that time, I was doing my PhD from India and was affiliated with Brown University's Anthropology Department. When I arrived, I realized I needed to understand the political economy of the working-class South Asian community in Boston and the New England region, which led me to start thinking about working-class issues in this country. After finishing my PhD in 2010-11, I began postdoctoral studies and got affiliated with informal research groups focused on the working-class community in the area, eventually connecting with MIT's Women and Gender Studies Department. My path to UMass Boston, where I have been teaching for 10 years in the sociology department, Labor Studies, and the Women and Gender Studies program, was not easy. I reached out to 10 different places to find something for myself. My research, which has been ongoing since 2005, focuses on women laborers, their everyday practices, and cultural capital. I did my bachelor's in psychology, then moved to sociology to understand society more broadly, and specialized in looking at societal problems with respect to women and their everyday lives, especially working-class women. I worked with an organization looking at women's trafficking issues and realized these trafficked women came from the same state where I was born and raised. This led me to focus my PhD research on women coal miners of India, as that state is so rich in mineral resources, especially coal. My upcoming book on this topic, which took 15 years to complete, will be published by the end of June 2026. In 2018, I founded my own nonprofit, the South Asian Center, after conducting ground research in the New England region and finding no support system or organization for the South Asian working-class community. Since founding the center, we have raised around $650,000 helping immigrant communities, students, and youth with civic education, women's life skill development, English speaking classes, and leadership skills development. We now have a membership of 350 to 400 members who thrive together as a family. I am also a mother of two little children, and being a mom is the most beautiful thing that has helped me become who I am. The biggest support system for me has been my university, UMass Boston, and the diverse student body I teach. I learn a lot from their everyday life, their struggles and resilience, and that makes me who I am. I have been helped by many influential women mentors in academia and activist groups in and around the Boston and New England region.