Dr. Shobha Hamal: Expert on Women and Gender Issue from Uta

Shobha Hamal Gurung is the associate professor of sociology and women and gender studies at Southern Utah University (SUU) and the program director of SUU’s Nepal studies program. Her research focus is gender and labor; globalization, migration, and transnational studies; South Asia and inter-
national studies; and social justice and human rights. Her broad expertise on the lives of Nepali women is reflected in these publications: “Women Weavers in Nepal: Between Global Market and Local Craft Production” (2004); “Growing Up Hindu: Mapping the Memories of a Nepali Woman
in the United States” (2008); “Nepali Female Migrants and Informalization of Domestic and Care Work: Service or Servitude?” (2010); “Gendered Labor: Experiences of Nepali Women within Pan-Ethnic Informal Labor Markets in Boston and New York” (coauthor, Bandana Purkayastha, 2013);
“Sex Trafficking and the Sex Trade Industry: The Processes and Experiences of Nepali Women”(2014); “Shifting Gender Roles and Shifting Power Relations: Immigrant/Migrant Nepali Families in New York and Los Angeles” (2014); “Fluidity and Realities of Race, Class, and Gender: Different Places, Times, and Contexts” (2014); and “Dynamics and Ramifications of US Immigration and Visa Policies: Nepali Transnational Workers, Families, and Children in the United States” (2015). Her book Nepali Migrant Women: Resistance and Survival in America found its home at Syracuse University Press, which is highly regarded for its Gender and Globalization Series. This book is a pioneer in documenting the gendered experiences of educated and professional migrant women who work in ethnically segmented labor markets in Boston and New York.
She has presented her scholarly work at a number of regional, national, and international conferences, which include the Eastern Sociological Association, Pacific Sociological Association, American Sociological Association, International Sociological Association, Sociologists for Women in Society, UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW 58), International Sociological Association, and SUU (Festival of Excellence). She has been invited to speak in the US (at Boston College, the University of Connecticut, the University of Illinois, the University of Massachusetts, the University of Nevada, the University of Washington, the University of Wisconsin, and Southern Utah University) and in Nepal (Kathmandu University, Padma Kanya College). She has received funding from the Institute for Asian American Studies at UMass Boston and the Ford Foundation to further her current research “Invisible Migrants in a Globalized Economy: The Case of Nepali Women in the US.” Her current research project examines the socio-cultural and emotional lives of Bhutanese refugees of Nepali origin in two US cities—Salt Lake and Seattle.