Keywords

  • community development
  • community sociology
  • development sociology
  • displacement
  • economic development
  • economy and society
  • family
  • feminist
  • gender and sexuality
  • gender and sexuality studies
  • gender relations
  • globalization
  • historical and comparative sociology
  • international agriculture
  • international development
  • militarization
  • moral regulation
  • rural development
  • social change
  • social inequalities
  • social movements
  • social regulation
  • state
  • sustainability
  • women and work

Feldman, Shelley

Professor
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

research and scholarship 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.

research areas

international geographic focus

domestic geographic focus

affiliations

head of

faculty appointment in

administrative appointment

member of graduate field

other Cornell affiliations

teaching

teaching 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 101 Introduction to Sociology; DSOC 370 Comparative Issues in Social Stratification; DSOC 425 Gender Relations and Social Change; DSOC 617 Foundations of Social Research: Comparative Epistemologies; DSOC 645 Rural Social Stratification; DSOC 671 Epistemological Challenges to Social Science Paradigms: A Feminist Inquiry; DSOC 725 Sociology of “Third World” States/Theories of State, State of Theory; DSOC 771 Policy and Political Practice; DSOC 872 Displacement, Impoverishment and Development; DSOC 872 A Sociology of Displacement; DSOC 872 Proseminar; DSOC 872 Politics, Planning, and Evaluation; SHUM Gendered Nationalisms, Gendered Violence; IARD402 Agriculture in Developing Nations I; IARD402 Agriculture in Developing Nations II

service

outreach 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.

publications

selected publications (listing in progress)

  • 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
  • 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
  • "Bengali State and Nation Making: Partition and Displacement Revisited. " 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
Keywords: community development, community sociology, development sociology, displacement, economic development, economy and society, family, feminist, gender and sexuality, gender and sexuality studies, gender relations, globalization, historical and comparative sociology, international agriculture, international development, militarization, moral regulation, rural development, social change, social inequalities, social movements, social regulation, state, sustainability, women and work