Sanghamitra Niyogi

Graduate Student

Email: sniyogi@ucdavis.edu

Off: 290 SS&H

Education: Sociology, Univ. of California, Davis, PhD expected Fall 2009

                  M.A. Sociology, Univ. of California, Davis 2002

                  M.Sc. International Relations, Univ. of Bristol 2001

                  B.A. Political Science, Univ. of Delhi 2000

Areas of Interest:

• Race and Ethnicity
• Cultural Sociology
• Immigration and Identity
• Ethnography
• Asian Americans

Publications:

“Bengali American Fiction in Immigrant Identity Work” in Cultural Sociology (Forthcoming)

Current research:

Dissertation Title and Abstract: Crafting Identities: Ethnic Incorporation of two sub-groups among Asian Indians in the S.F. Bay Area.

I look at the role of pre-migration, sub-national ethnicity in the incorporation of Asian Indian immigrants in the U.S. I highlight alternative strategies of acculturation adopted by Asian Indians who try to resist a monolithic Hinduized Indian identity in the process of becoming American. Indian ethnicity is composed of several different strands including religious, regional, linguistic and caste attributes. I explore the identity strategies adopted by minorities from India such as those of the Punjabi-Sikhs. I also look at the practices of Bengali-Hindus who claim to be secular Hindus and thus resist Hindu-fundamentalist representations of all Hindus in diaspora. Rather than being a static factor, immigrants actively manipulate their sub-national ethnicity in their identity formation. I find that sub-national ethnicity is appropriated not just by the first generation but even by their offspring. The ways in which second-generation immigrants activate their sub-national ethnicity is different from how their parents use it. Pre-migration attributes like sub-national ethnicity are vital in shaping identity for immigrants who occupy an uneasy position within U.S. racial discourse. Even though race is a master status in the U.S., their ambiguous racial classification allows Asian Indians more room to manipulate their ethnic identity in the process of identification. My findings display that in order to understand immigrant strategies of incorporation it is vital to look at the various cultural repertoires available and the structural factors that determine how immigrants draw upon those repertoires.

Past Research:

MSc. in International Relations, University of Bristol, U.K. 2001: my M.Sc. thesis in I.R. was a study of identity amongst South Asian Immigrant Women in the U.K. I specifically looked at the role played by cultural repertoires in how immigrants understand and deal with domestic violence.

BA in Political Science, Lady Shriram College, Univ. of Delhi, India. 2000: my undergraduate honors thesis detailed the socio-historical factors that shape ethnic conflict in South Asia.

Work Experience:

Associate Instructor, Dept. of Sociology, U.C. Davis

Race and Ethnicity Summer 2009

Introduction to Sociology Fall 2008

Social Problems Fall 2007

Social Problems, Fall 2005

Immigration and Opportunity, summer 2005

Teaching Assistant in the Dept. of Sociology, U.C. Davis, from 2001 to 2006 for the following undergraduate courses in addition to the courses listed above:  

Self and Society; Gender; Family; Introduction to Social Research; Field Research; Multicultural Societies

Presentations:

• American Sociological Association 2009 “Bengali Nerds: Second Generation Bengali-Hindus in the SF Bay Area.” San Francisco.
• American Sociological Association 2009 “Gendered Appropriation of Sikhi: Second Generation Punjabi-Sikhs in the SF Bay Area.” San Francisco.
• Pacific Sociological Association 2009 “Turbaned Politics in Sikh Identity Work” San Diego.
• American Sociological Association 2008 “Immigrant Sub-National Ethnicity: Bengali-Hindus and Punjabi-Sikhs in the San Francisco Bay Area” Boston.
• American Sociological Association 2007 “Culturally Correct: Identity Construction by Bengali Immigrants in the San Francisco Bay Area” New York.
• MELUS (Multi-ethnic Literature of the United States) 2007 “Bengali-American Fiction in Immigrant Identity Work” Fresno.