Roksana Badruddoja

Professor, Sociology

Dr. Roksana Badruddoja (she/they) is a tenured Professor of Sociology in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Manhattan University. Their scholarship and teaching are grounded in decolonial feminist, womanist, and critical race traditions, with a focus on power, belonging, gender, and intergenerational memory.

Dr. Badruddoja’s research examines contemporary social inequalities through the lived experiences and narratives of marginalized communities, treating these voices as sites of knowledge and critical insight rather than objects of study. Their work engages questions of cultural identity, migration, violence, resistance, and the social meanings of space and place—particularly how power and vulnerability are produced, contested, and remembered across generations.

They teach courses on decolonial and womanist research methods; women of color in the United States; race and resistance; gender, sexuality, and violence; social inequalities; and decolonial feminist activism. Their pedagogy emphasizes ethical inquiry, reflexivity, and the relationship between scholarship and responsibility.

Dr. Badruddoja is the author of National (un)Belonging: Bengali American Women on Imagining and Contesting Culture and Identity (Brill/Haymarket, forthcoming). They are also the editor of “New Maternalisms”: Tales of Motherwork (Dislodging the Unthinkable) (Demeter Press, 2016), and a contributor to Good Girls Marry Doctors: South Asian Daughters in Obedience and Rebellion (Aunt Lute Books, 2016).

Across their work, Dr. Badruddoja is committed to understanding how histories of harm and survival shape present-day social life, and to exploring what it means to act with care, accountability, and solidarity in relation to marginalized communities.

Education

Ph.D. in Sociology, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey–New Brunswick
M.A. in Sociology, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey–New Brunswick
M.B.A. in International Finance, American University
B.S. in Communications, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign

Courses Taught

SOC 201 – Introduction to Sociology
SOC 150 – Roots: Sociology
SOC 153 – Roots: Sociology – First-Year Seminar
SOC 302 – Race and Resistance
SOC 290 – Codes of Gender
SOC 304 – Social Inequalities
SOC 306 – The Family
SOC 315 – Special Topics in Sociology
SOC 352 – Advanced Qualitative Methods
SOC 416 – Seminar in Sociology

  • Research

     

    • Intergenerational family trauma and social memory

    • Gender, race, and power in everyday life

    • Migration, belonging, and diasporic identity

    • Violence, vulnerability, and survival across generations

    • Decolonial feminist and womanist methodologies

    • Narrative, lived experience, and ethical approaches to social research

    • Space, place, and the social meanings of home, displacement, and return

  • Publications and Scholarly Activities

    SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

    Books & Edited Volumes

    • Badruddoja, R. National (un)Belonging: Bengali American Women on Imagining and Contesting Culture and Identity. Chicago, IL: Haymarket Books, 2022.

    • Badruddoja, R. (Ed.). “New Maternalisms”: Tales of Motherwork (Dislodging the Unthinkable). Toronto: Demeter Press, 2016.

    Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles

    • Badruddoja, R. (2022). “Bones of the Womb: Healing Algorithms of BIPOC Reproductive Trauma with Ritual, Ceremonies, and Ancestral Memory.” Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy, 37, 619–641.

    • Badruddoja, R. (2022). “The Fantasy of ‘Home’: Locating Dislocation, Loss, and Silence.” Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women’s and Gender Studies, 22(1).

    • Badruddoja, R. (2019). “Time, History, and Memory: Bongobondhu and the Birthing of Bangladeshi National Counter-Memories.” South Asian Review, 40(4), 290–304.

    • Badruddoja, R. (2014). “Third World Woman, Family, and Marriage: South Asian Diasporic Fiction as Nation-Building.” South Asian Review, 35(2), 81–104.

    • Badruddoja, R. (2008). “Queer Spaces, Places, and Gender.” Feminist Formations, 20(2), 156–188.

    • Badruddoja, R. (2006). “Resisting the White Pole: Second-Generation South Asian American Women and Racialization Projects.” International Journal of Sociology of the Family, 32(1), 19–60.

    Book Chapters

    • Badruddoja, R. (2023). “The Myth of the Universal Woman: White Feminist Fantasy and the Invisibility of Violence Against Women of Color.” In International Responses to Domestic Violence (2nd ed.). Routledge.

    • Badruddoja, R. (2020). “Hyperemesis Gravidarum: What to Expect When You Are Expecting…NOT!” In Race, Ethnicity, Gender and Health Care Disparities. Emerald Publishing.

    • Badruddoja, R. (2016). “The Fantasy of Normative Motherhood.” In Good Girls Marry Doctors: South Asian American Daughters on Obedience and Rebellion. Aunt Lute Books.

  • Professional Experience and Memberships
    Tenured Professor of Sociology with extensive experience in research, teaching, academic leadership, and public scholarship, and active engagement in national and international scholarly communities focused on social inequality.
  • Honors, Awards, and Grants
    Honors, awards, and grants include multiple Faculty Development Awards; peer-nominated teaching and research awards; competitive institutional and external grants supporting research on gender, race, and social inequality; and recognition from national scholarly associations for contributions to feminist and sociological scholarship.
  • Other
    Professional training includes certification as a Domestic Violence Specialist (New Jersey), with extensive experience supporting survivors through education and direct service. Fluent in Bengali; basic knowledge of Hindi.