Nandini Deo, Secretary-Treasurer
Nandini Deo is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at Lehigh University. Her research is at the intersection of religion, feminism, and social movements in South Asia. Professor Deo’s first book, The Politics of Collective Advocacy in India, was co-authored with Duncan McDuie Ra, and focused on the gains of NGOs networking transnationally. Her second book, Mobilizing Religion and Gender in India: The role of activism, compares the rise and fall of women’s movements and religious nationalism as an outcome of activist strategies as they responded to changing political structures. She is currently working on two projects. One is a collaboration with scholars in India and the Netherlands to investigate the ways in which civil society organizations in India engage in political advocacy today. The other maps how collaboration between corporations and non-governmental organizations in India is reshaping the development sector.
Professor Deo served as a book review editor for Politics, Religion and Ideology. She is active in the “Women and Politics” and “Religion and Politics” sections of the American Political Science Association. She has served as a member of various committees including those selecting papers and books for disciplinary awards.
Professor Deo teaches courses on religion, gender, social movements, development, comparative politics, and political theory. Her classes feature active learning, lots of discussion, and a certain level of uncertainty as they are typically co-produced along with students as the semester progresses. She is originally from India and resides in Philadelphia. During 2023-24 Deo is a Fulbright-Nehru Scholar at SNDT Women’s University in Mumbai, India.