Overview

My research goals are to better understand broad processes of global social change, especially as these processes are reflected in particular national contexts and among particular social groups. This leads to two parallel but distinct areas of research. The first explores questions of development, social restructuring, and gender relations. My regional focus is South Asia, particularly Bangladesh and India, but I also contribute to discussions of rural and agrarian change in other world regions with particular attention to women's labor and non-monetary exchange relations. The second research area examines the ways in which feminist theorizing recasts debates on state formation, social regulation, relations of inclusion and exclusion, informalization, and militarization.

Research Focus

I am currently involved in a series of projects that integrate the above substantive theme. These projects include analyses of: 1) the (post) colonial East Pakistani state and its role in the construction of ethnic and regional identities, 2) moral regulation, fundamentalist practice, and regimes of gender control, 3) border formations and processes of displacement/exclusion, 4) the salience of human capabilities as a model of economic development, 5) micro-credit and informality as neo-liberal reform, and 6) militarism as the expression of current social relations.

Outreach and Extension Focus

To contribute to framing a template to guide global agriculture and technology development in ways that sustain communities and production capacities, reduce poverty, and enhance consumption among the world`s poorest.

Instruction Focus

To enhance student competitiveness in securing external support for graduate research. This includes proposal writing and sustained movement through the MS and PhD programs. Courses Taught: DSOC 1101 Introduction to Sociology; DSOC 3700 Comparative Issues in Social Stratification; DSOC 4250 Gender Relations and Social Change; DSOC 6170 Foundations of Social Research: Comparative Epistemologies; DSOC 6450 Rural Social Stratification; DSOC 6710 Epistemological Challenges to Social Science Paradigms: A Feminist Inquiry; DSOC 7250 Sociology of "Third World " States/Theories of State, State of Theory; DSOC 7710 Policy and Political Practice; DSOC 8720 Displacement, Impoverishment and Development; DSOC 8720 A Sociology of Displacement; DSOC 8720 Proseminar; DSOC 8720 Politics, Planning, and Evaluation; SHUM Gendered Nationalisms, Gendered Violence; IARD402 Agriculture in Developing Nations I; IARD402 Agriculture in Developing Nations II

Additional Links

• Department of Development Sociology
• Feminist, Gender, & Sexuality Studies Program
• Link to CALS Research portal
• Link to CALS Impact statements

Professional Activities

• Shelley Feldman presented a paper on current trends and future scenarios in global inequality organized by Patricio Korzeniewicz and Tim Moran at the Russell Sage Foundation, New York City, 26-27 October. - 2006
• Chair and Discussant, The Bengal Partition Reexamined, Asian Studies Association Annual Meetings, San Francisco, CA, April. - 2006
• Claiming a Past, Making a future: The Muktijoddah Jadughar ([Bangladesh] War Museum) as a Site of Struggle, 2005/06 Aziz Ahmad Lecture, University of Toronto, Centre for South Asian Studies, 16 September - 2005
• Linda Shaw and Shelley Feldman, Attacking Welfare Fraud from the Bottom Up, New Legal Realism meets Feminism and Legal Theory: Combining Legal and Empirical ?Research to Generate New Perspectives on Work, Family, and Gendered Lives, Emory University, Atlanta, GA. 24-25 June 2005 - 2005
• Chair and Discussant, Globalization, Past and Present: Theories, Ideas and Historical Outcomes, Social Science History Association Annual Meetings, Portland, Oregon, November. - 2005

Selected Publications

• Patriarchy: Overview and Theories, Barbara Engel, ed. Oxford Encyclopedia of Women's History. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006 2007
• Linda B. Williams and Shelley Feldman, Women, Gender, and Development and Family: Southeast Asia. Suad Joseph, ed., Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures (EWIC), The Netherlands: Brill Academic Publishers, 2006 2007
• Shelley Feldman and Linda B. Williams, Women, Gender, and Development and Family: Overview. Suad Joseph, ed., Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures (EWIC), The Netherlands: Brill Academic Publishers, 2006. 2007
• Shelley Feldman and Paul Gellert, 2006. The Seductive Quality of Central Human Capabilities: Sociological Insights into Nussbaum and Sen's Disagreement, Economy and Society, 35(August): 423-452. 2007
• Shelley Feldman, "Social Regulation in the Time of War: Constituting the Current Crisis," Globalizations, 4, 4 (2007): 445-459; 2007
• Women, Gender and Family and Islamic Discourses (Modern Period): South Asia. . Suad Joseph, ed., Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures (EWIC), The Netherlands: Brill Academic Publishers, 2006 2007
• Shelley Feldman and Paul Gellert. "The Seductive Quality of Central Human Capabilities: Sociological Insights into Nussbaum and Sen's Disagreement. " Economy and Society 35(August): 423-452. 2006
• Governance NGOs and Development, in Handbook of International Development Governance, Huque, A. S. and H. Zafarullah eds. New York: Marcel Dekker, Inc. 2005
• Desi Larson Child Labor in Bangladesh in Traver, E., Larson, D., and Schmitz, C. eds. Child Labor, World View of Social Issues Series, Greenwood Publishing. 2004
• Bangladesh, Pp. 57-83 in Women's Issues in Asia, Manish Desai ed., Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing. 2003
• "Bengali State and Nation Making: Partition and Displacement Revisited. " International Social Science Journal, ISSJ, No. 175: March 2003. 2003
• Paradoxes of Institutionalization: The Depoliticisation of Bangladeshi NGOs. " Development in Practice 13.1(February): 5-26. 2003
• Shelley Feldman, Charles Geisler, and Louise Silberling, "Moving Targets: Displacement, Impoverishment, and Development: An Introduction. " International Social Science Journal, ISSJ, No. 175: March 2003. 2003
• Shelley Feldman and Kamal Siddiqui, Dhaka, The Capital of Bangladesh. The Encyclopedia of Urban Cultures, Human Relations Area Files, Inc. 2002
• "Exploring Theories of Patriarchy: A Perspective from Contemporary Bangladesh. " SIGNS 26.4: 1097-1127. 2001
• Metaphor and Myth: Gender and Islam in Bangladesh, In Essays on the Muslims of Bengal. Rafiuddin Ahmed, ed. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. 2001
• "Response to Oded Stark. " Economic Development and Cultural Change 48.4 (July 2000): 889-891. 2000

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