Tittle: “Change-makers: Women’s Studies Scholar-Activism Across the Disciplines”

Prof. Shoba Rajgopal is a distinguished academic and a passionate advocate for gender equality and social justice. She currently serves as the President of our South Asian Feminist Studies Caucus within the National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA). She is the chair of the Department of Ethnic and Gender Studies at Westfield State University in Massachusetts, where she teaches courses on gender, race and sexuality. With a rich academic background, Prof. Rajgopal holds a Ph.D. in Communication (Media Studies) and an Interdisciplinary Graduate Certificate in Women & Gender Studies from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Additionally, she boasts two Master’s Degrees, one in English and the other in Communication, and is proficient in five languages. She has also served for 3 years as the Coordinator of the Women’s Studies Program at Westfield State University and is one of the founding faculty of the EGST Dept. Her research and teaching areas are in postcolonial and transnational feminist theories, Asian queer movements and media representation, South Asian cinema, and globalization, religion, and gender conflicts. Dr. Rajgopal has worked as a TV News Correspondent based in Bombay (Mumbai), India, for the Indian TV networks and won plaudits for her news reportage. She has also done in-depth news reports for Indian TV and CNN International on political and social issues in India, focusing on the rights of women and indigenous communities.