Gaurav Pathania

POSITION: Assistant Professor of Sociology & Peacebuilding

DEPARTMENTS:
School of Social Sciences and Professions
Sociology

LOCATION: Main Campus, Harrisonburg | RLN 225

PHONE: (540) 432-4435

Gaurav J. Pathania is an assistant professor of Sociology and Peacebuilding at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Gaurav has also been a visiting scholar at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and the University of Southern California. His first book, The University as a Site of Resistance: Identity and Student Politics (Oxford University Press, 2019), explores student resistance in higher education in India. Currently, his research focuses on the socio-political activism of the South Asian diaspora in the US and UK. Dr. Pathania serves as a deputy editor for South Asia Research, a journal published by SOAS, University of London. He is also an anti-caste poet and activist, community organizer with his social justice writings featured in The Boston Globe and he has been interviewed by PBS and BBC on diaspora issues in the United States. Gaurav won the national poetry award for 2016 organized by the Poetry Society of India. His anti-caste poetry appears in J-Caste journal published by Brandeis University. Gaurav made his Hollywood debut in Ava DuVernay’s film ORIGIN, portraying Dr. Ambedkar, the architect of the Indian Constitution. Gaurav and his team have embarked on a series of publications, including Caste & Race with Bloomsbury Publishing.

ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/my-orcid?orcid=0000-0002-7110-9455

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/professor-gaurav-j-pathania-84815677/

Education

PHD, Jawaharlal Nehru University (Sociology)
MPHIL, Jawaharlal Nehru University (Sociology)
MA, Jawaharlal Nehru University (Sociology)

Publications
Pathania, Gaurav J. and Kalyani. 2024. “Contextualizing the Emergence of Dalit Studies in Academia,” in Jaoa Paraskeva (ed.) On Caste: Towards a Non-Derivative Curriculum Reason, Routledge: NY. [forthcoming]
Pathania, Gaurav J. and Nina Asher. 2023. “Racialization of Caste: Internal Colonization of Education in South Asia”, In J. Scott, M. Bajaj (eds.) The Yearbook of Education 2023: Racialization and Educational Inequalities in Global Perspective, Routledge: USA
Pathania, Gaurav, Sushrut Jadhav, Amit Thorat, David Mosse, and Sumeet Jain. 2023. “Caste Identities and Structures of Threats: Stigma, Prejudice and Social Representation in Indian Universities”. CASTE / A Global Journal on Social Exclusion 4 (1), 03-23.
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=9IYrMmcAAAAJ&hl=en&authuser=1
Pathania, Gaurav J. 2021. “Regional Movements in Democracy: The Case of Telangana” in in P. D’Souza, H. Ahmed and S. Alam (eds.) Companion on Indian Democracy: Resilience, Fragility, Ambivalence, Routledge, UK.
Pathania, Gaurav J. 2020. Cultural Politics of Historically Marginalized Students in Indian Universities, Critical Times, 3(3): 534-550. Duke Universtiy Press.
Thakur, N. & Pathania, Gaurav J. 2019. Privatization and Shrinking Free Space in Indian Higher Education, In Suresh Babu GS (ed.) Education and the Public Sphere, Routledge: UK
Pathania, Gaurav J. 2018. The University as a Site of Resistance: Identity and Student Politics, Oxford University Press. [BOOK]
Pathania, Gaurav J. and Tierney, William G. 2018. An Ethnography of Caste and Class at an Indian University: Creating Capital, Tertiary Education and Management, 24 (3): 221-231.
Pathania, Gaurav J. 2016. Food Politics and Counter-Hegemonic Assertion in Indian University Campuses, South Asia Research, 36(2): 261-77
Other Presentations
2024: Ambedkar Movement in North America, Birth Anniversary Celebration Committee of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, Brampton, Canada [April 20]

2024: Eating in Public: Race, Caste and Food Practices across Differences, Department of South Asia Studies Colloquium, University of Pennsylvania [February 7]

2023: Reclaiming Space, Challenging Narrative: The Role of Dalit Students Politics in Transforming the University. Organized by SOAS Student Union, University of London [May 17]

2023: Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: A Global Perspective, Universtiy of Calgary, Canada [May 6]

2022: Presenting my paper titiled "Univesity and the Civil Sphere" @ the "Civil Sphere in South Asia" conference organized by Professor Jeffrey Alexander, Center for Cultural Sociology at Yale University [October 21-22]
Professional Memberships
Southern Sociological Society [Annual]

Comparative International Educational Society (CIES) [Annual]

American Sociological Association [Annual]

DC Sociological Society [Annual]

Comparative Education Society of India [Life Member]
Courses Taught
Introduction to Sociology

Global Social Movements

Globalization and Justice

Theories of Social Change

Sociology of Health

Transformational Leadership for Social Change

Sociology of Caste and Class

Nonviolent Mobilizing Action

Community Organizing Social Action

(Log in to edit)

Quick Links

Faculty/Staff Directory

Gaurav Pathania

Education