Overview

Professor Basu`s area of expertise and research is predominantly in the areas of reproductive health and family planning, gender and development and child health and mortality. She also has interests in population studies and culture and demographic behavior.

Research Focus

My research and extension activities are in two broad areas: Population Studies and South Asian Studies.Within these areas I am particularly interested in question of gender, the role of the state and disparities in access and outcomes on matters related to health in particular, but well-being in general.The general implications of globalization for all these areas are also of great interest to me.

Outreach and Extension Focus

My extension activities have been carried out primarily through my position as the Director of the South Asia Program at Cornell University. In this position, I am responsible for organizing regular seminars and conferences on themes related to South Asia, and for promoting outreach activities in the larger Ithaca community, as well as in the schools in the area. I have also co-founded a network of researchers from the colleges and universities in the Central New York region that work on South Asia and usually have very little opportunity to meet one another or think of intellectual collaborations. The memebrs of this network now meet once a semester at Cornell.

Instruction Focus

Courses Taught: DSOC 4100 Health and Survival Inequalities and DSOC 4210 Theories of Reproduction

Additional Links

• Department of Development Sociology
• South Asia Program
• Link to CALS Research portal
• Link to CALS Impact statements

Selected Publications

• "Are the Millennium Development Goals Relevant to Academic Research? ", Economic and Political Weekly, October. 2007
• Entry on "Population Policy" in the Oxford Companion to Economics in India, New Delhi, Oxford University Press, March. 2007
• Entry on "Infant Mortality" in the Oxford Companion to Economics in India, New Delhi, Oxford University Press, March. 2007
• (with L. Williams and D. Kusi-Appouh "Religious Differentials in Child Survival in India: Some unexpected findings", presented at the Annual Meeting of The Population Association of America, March. 2007
• "Reproductive Health Advocacy " in E. Braunstein and S. Atwood (eds), Trade Liberalization and Reproductive Health, London: Zed Press. 2007
• "Pedagogy: Reproductive Health as an Academic Field", in M. J. Roseman and L. Reichenbach, Critical reflections on Global Reproductive Health and Rights, University of Pennsylvania Press. 2007
• "Reproductive Health Advocacy " in E. Braunstein and S. Atwood (eds), Trade Liberalization and Reproductive Health, London: Zed Press. 2007
• "Pedagogy: Reproductive Health as an Academic Field", in M. J. Roseman and L. Reichenbach, Critical reflections on Global Reproductive Health and Rights, University of Pennsylvania Press. 2007
• "The Emotions and Reproductive Health", Population and Development Review, March. 2006
• (with R. Stephenson), "Is a little learning never a dangerous thing? Maternal education and the proximate determinants of infant and child mortality ", Social Science and Medicine. 2005
• "Ultramodern Contraception: Social Class and Family Planning in India," Asian Population Studies, September. 2005
• "The Millenium Development Goals Minus Reproductive Health: An Unfortunate, but Not Disastrous, Omission", Studies in Family Planning, June. 2005
• Entries on "Population Policy" and "Infant Mortality" in the Oxford Companion to Economics in India, New Delhi, Oxford University Press. 2005
• "The Squabble that Never Ends: Religion and Fertility in the 2001 Census of India ", Economic and Political Weekly, Sept. 2004
• (with S. Amin). "Popular perceptions of Changing Health and Mortality: Evidence from a Qualitative Study ", Population Studies, Nov. 2004
• "Towards an understanding of the emotions of the population of 2300 ", in United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, World Population to 2300, New York, UN Population Division. 2004
• (with G. Koolwal), "Two notions of female autonomy and their implications for reproductive health " in ORC Macro "A Focus on Gender: Collected Papers using DHS data", Washington, D,C,. Macro International. 2004
• "Reproductive Health Advocacy " in E. Braunstein and S. Atwood (eds), Trade Liberalization and Reproductive Health, International Center for Research on Women, Washington, D.C., London: Zed Press. 2004
• Entry on "Women's Health in South Asia " for the Routledge International Encyclopaedia of Women's Studies. 2003
• "On the Prospects for Endless Fertility Decline in South Asia ", Population Bulletin of the United Nations. 2003
• "Why does education lead to lower fertility? A critical review of some of the possibilities", World Development. 2002
• (with S. Amin and R. Stephenson), "Spatial variations in contraceptive use in Bangladesh: Looking beyond the borders", Demography. 2002
• (with S. Amin), "Some preconditions for reproductive change in the two Bengals: History, culture and an openness to innovations", Population and Development Review. 2000
• Fertility decline and worsening gender bias in India: A response to Irudaya Rajan et al", Development and Change. 2000
• "Gender in population research: Confusing implications for health policy", Population Studies. 2000
• "Women, poverty and demographic change: Some possible interrelationships over time and space", in B. Garcia (ed), Women, Poverty and Demographic Change in Developing Countries, Oxford, Clarendon Press. 2000

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