Associate Professor of Sociology and International and Public Affairs at Brown University, her book, Capable Women, Incapable States: Negotiating Violence and Rights in India, was published with Oxford University Press in 2021. Her writing has won awards from the American Sociological Association, the Eastern Sociological Society, the Law and Society Association, and the Society for the Study of Social Problems. She serves on the editorial board of American Journal of Sociology, Law & Social Inquiry, and Sociological Theory. Her research analyzes how political movements influence the evolution, implementation, and enforcement of human rights, with special attention to rights concerning gender-based violence. Currently, she is conducting research on the legal and social implications of the fetal personhood movement in the United States.
Currently Head of Sociology at the University of Glasgow, and previously Director of the Centre for Urban and Community Research at Goldsmiths, University of London. His research interests range from studies of racism and fascism on-line to the classed meanings of Christmas lights. His published work is mainly in the areas of the sociology of race and racism, ethnicity, multiculturalism, urban culture, music and sport. In recent years he has also focused on writing about teaching and scholarly craft (see Academic Diary: Why Higher Education Still Matters, The Goldsmiths Press, 2016). He is committed to trying to blur the boundaries between the University and the broader civic and public sphere, and to this end he has recently been experimenting with podcasting (see Street Signs and Recovering Community)