AsAmSt Faculty Interview: Elora Chowdhury
Educational Experiences:
B.A.- 1994, College of Wooster, Ohio
Majors: Womens Studies; Cultural Area Studies
Minor: Religious Studies
M.A - 1996, The Ohio State University
Women's Studies
PhD - 2004 Clark University, Massachusetts
Women's Studies
Biography:
Dr. Elora Chowdhury is an affiliated faculty member of the Asian American Studies Program and teaches the course, Asian Women in the U.S.The university's urban campus and diverse student body led Dr. Chowdhury to believe that it would be the ideal school to teach and share her passion for Ethnic and Women's Studies. She was not disappointed. She believes the best part of her job is being in the classroom with her students. For the past four years, Dr. Chowdhury has been teaching in the areas of global feminism, human rights, gender and development, and gender politics in South Asia.
Dr. Chowdhury's interest in Women's Studies was sparked in an unusual way. Daughter of an academic and nationalist,it was her father who suggested she major in it as an undergraduate student. He hoped it was a subject that could inspire her to be a change agent and contribute to the national development in her native Bangladesh. She immediately fell in love with the subject and was particularly drawn to the writings of U.S. women of color and third world feminist scholars grappling with local and global systems of power. This focus later informed her research and scholarship on transnational women's organizing in Bangladesh. More specifically, she has written on donor driven neocolonial development discourse, dynamics of nationalism, modernization and Islamization in Bangladesh in relation to feminist politics.
In the fall of 2007, Dr. Chowdhury co-organized, Engaging Islam, which was a gathering of scholars from around the world to discuss Islam, feminisms and social change. This event was especially important due to the recent war against terrorism (www.engagingislam.umb.edu) . Dr. Chowdhury also works with a number of women's organizations in Bangladesh and the U.S. in the area of gendered violence. Prior to joining UMASS, she spent several years working as a journalist, as well as in the non-profit sector in Bangladesh, and the higher education unit of the Ford Foundation, New York.