WWU Professor to Discuss ‘Leaning In and Merging Paths: The Professional Journeys of Indian Immigrant Women in the United States’ tonight at City Hall

Bidisha Biswas, Professor of Political Science at Western Washington University, will give a talk titled “Leaning In and Merging Paths: The Professional Journeys of Indian Immigrant Women in the United States” from 7 to 8 p.m. on Monday, March 6th in the Bellingham City Council Chambers, 210 Lottie Street.

The free, public talk is an installment of the WWU College of Humanities and Social Sciences Dean’s Lecture Series and is co-sponsored by the City of Bellingham. Bidisha Biswas presents perspectives from her recent, co-authored book Indian Immigrant Women and Work: The American Experience. The book challenges dominant narratives about women immigrants to the United States, which portray women as being either dependent migrants following the path chosen by men, or victims of desperation, forced into the migrant path due to economic pressures.

Biswas’s research looks at the experiences of Indian women who have chosen their own migratory pathways in the U.S. Based on historical research and interviews with about thirty women, the book widens our understanding of immigration, race, class, and gender by focusing on the trials, tribulations, and triumphs of independent, high-skilled women immigrants. Bidisha Biswas is Professor of Political Science at Western Washington University. She previously served as a policy adviser on South Asia to the United States Department of State. Bidisha has researched, spoken, and published extensively on diaspora and immigration related issues, as well as on international security. In 2016, she published a co-authored book entitled Indian Immigrant Women and Work: The American Experience.

At Western, she teaches on topics in international relations, including American Foreign Policy and South Asian politics.
Audience questions for the March 6th talk will be welcomed. The lecture will be recorded and shown on Bellingham TV Channel 10.

For more information on this lecture and for disability accommodations, please contact Kirsten Anderson, WWU College of Humanities & Social Sciences, (360) 650-3763, or Kirsten.Anderson@wwu.edu.

The College of Humanities and Social Services (CHSS), the university’s largest college, includes the 13 departments of: Anthropology, Communication Sciences and Disorders, Communication Studies, English, Health and Human Development, History, Journalism, Liberal Studies, Modern and Classical Languages, Philosophy, Political Science, Psychology, and Sociology, as well as four interdisciplinary programs: East Asian Studies, Linguistics, Multidisciplinary Studies, and Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies.