Manisha Desai

Director & Graduate Certificate Advisor

Office: Beach 423

Phone:860-486-1131

Manisha Desai is the Director of Women's Studies and Associate Professor of Sociology. She served as the President Elect of Sociologists for WOmen in Society in 2006, President in 2007, and Past-President in 2008.

In addition to academic positions at UConn, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign and Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Manisha worked as the Senior Programme Specialist in the Gender Equity and Development Section of the Human Rights Division at UNESCO in Paris and served as the Sociologists for Women in Society's NGO representative to the United Nation's Economic and Social Council.

Her areas of research include transnational feminisms, gender and globalization, social movements, women and human rights, contemporary Indian society, and South Asian Americans.

She teaches women's studies core courses on research methods, the senior seminar, and feminisms as well as courses in her areas of expertise.