Manali Desai

Desai was brought up in India, the United States, and the United Kingdom.[1] She was born in the United States and later moved to India where she studied in Delhi.[2] She completed her last two years of school in London before attending university.[2]

Desai studied Economics at the University of Michigan[2] and received her PhD in Sociology from the University of California, Los Angeles where she studied comparative and historical sociology.[3] Desai's research interests include post-colonial studies, social movements, state formation, political parties, development, and ethnic violence.[4] Previously, her work has been funded by the British Academy[5] and the Leverhulme Trust.[6] Desai's research is currently funded by the Economic and Social Research Council to investigate the urban transformation and gendered violence in Johannesburg and Delhi.[1][7]

In 2007, Desai wrote a book entitled State Formation and Radical Democracy in India, 1860-1990.[7] She has also co-edited two booked entitled States of Trauma: Gender and Violence in South Asia and Building Blocs: How Parties Organize Society in 2009 and 2015, respectively.[7]

Before coming to Cambridge, Desai taught at the London School of Economics.[1] She came to the University of Cambridge in 2013[8] and is currently a Reader in Sociology.[9] She is also a Fellow of Newnham College, Cambridge.[10] In 2019, she was awarded the Pilkington Teaching Prize, in recognition of her commitment to and impact on teaching at the University of Cambridge.[10][11]

In 2020, Desai became the Head of Department of Sociology. She believed the first woman of color to lead a department at the University of Cambridge.[1][8][2]

Desai has been featured in The Guardian for her work on inclusion, diversity and equality within academia.[12] She also helped establish a "Decolonise Sociology" working group in the Department of Sociology at the University of Cambridge.[8]