Teaching at Sophia College since 1993. She was conferred the Ph D degree in 2012 for her doctoral thesis ‘Community Care for Elderly in Mumbai’ by the University of Mumbai. Her areas of expertise include Social Gerontology, Sociology of Care and Social Research Methods. She is the life member of Indian Sociological Society and Marathi Samajshastra Parishad, Honorary member of Federation of Senior Citizens’ Organisation, Maharashtra (FESCOM), Member of International Sociological Association. She serves as a member on Board of Studies in Sociology (University of Mumbai), St Xavier’s College (Mumbai), St Mira’s College (Pune), M P Shah College (Mumbai) and Athalye Sapre Pitre College (Devrukh). She is an honorary Managing Committee member of Tendulkar Mahilashram (Lanja)

Teaching at Sophia College for Women since January 2024. Prior to this, she was a research scholar at the Center for the Study of Social Systems, Jawaharlal Nehru University, from where she also completed her MA in Sociology in 2015, MPhil in 2018 & was awarded a PhD in 2024. Her doctoral thesis is titled ‘Memes and ‘Edits’: A Sociological Study of Humour on the Internet’. Her dissertation for MPhil was titled ‘Political Economy of Beef Markets and Hindutva: A Study of Cultural Nationalism’.

Her areas of expertise include digital sociology, media studies, sociological theory and popular culture. She has published two research papers based on her research work and has contributed a chapter to an edited book. She has presented several research papers at international conferences. She is currently a member of the Board of Studies, Sociology at KET’s V G Vaze College in the capacity of meritorious alumni.

Email: chitra.adkar@sophiacollege.edu.in

An alumna of Sophia College, Sukanya went on to pursue M.A. (Hons.) in Sociology from the University of Mumbai. In 2022, she graduated with a 10 CGPA, and defended two dissertations in Sociology of Religion ("Devaswom, State and Religion: Locating the Role of Devaswoms in the Secularism Debate) and another in Sociology of Gender, Space and Livelihood  ("Where is her Space? : A Case Study of the Spaces Occupied by Married Women within their homes in Mumbai, Maharashtra).  Fellow at the Sociology Department, before joining as faculty in 2022. Sukanya has published several academic papers on the area of media, conflict and international relations. She is actively involved in the college student research journal (Luminous) as well as in other student affairs and is a Course Coordinator of the Certificate Course in Social Research Methods. She was awarded the Dr Barbra Naidu Memorial Scholarship in  the year 2024 for ongoing research in the area of media perception.

Email: sukanya.menon@sophiacollege.edu.in

An alumna of Sophia College, Ria has been teaching at Sophia College for Women since November 2024. She completed her M.A. in Sociology from the University of Mumbai in 2021 with an A grade. She also finished her B.Ed. in 2022 from Pillai College of Education & Research Mumbai. She completed a certified course from Columbia University- New York on the topic, Protecting Children in Humanitarian Settings, in the year 2020 with 92% and another certified course from the University of California, Berkeley on the subject, Writing for Social Justice, in the year 2020 with an A+ grade. Her areas of interest include gender studies, sociology of care and media studies.

An alumna of Sophia College. She joined the Department in 2020. As part of her M.A.dissertation, she has worked on Informal Sector (“A study on the Flower Men of Vasai”) and on Rural Society (“A study on the Women Self Help Groups in Bhor and Mahude Khurd”).  Areas of interest:  Human Resource Development, Sociology of Informal Sector, Industrial Sociology and Rural Society.

Areas of expertise and research interests: Sociology of Religion, Identity studies, Sociology of Gender, Qualitative Research Methodology.

Doctoral area of research: Identity and Religion – a study on the social construction of identity at the intersection of religion, caste and gender.

Association with academic bodies: Life Member, Indian Sociological Society

Research projects:

• 2011-2013 Worked as Project Fellow, on an UGC-MRP project, titled Social Benefits of Reservation: A Study of Methodology and Analysis of Group Mobility through Individual Benefits, under Dr. P. G. Jogdand.
• 2009, Project Fellow, for a period of five months, under Prof. Kamala Ganesh (Dept. of Sociology) and Prof. Renu Modi (Centre for African Studies), for the Group for Research on Indian Diaspora (GRID), interdisciplinary project under UPE scheme of the UGC.
• 2009, Project Assistant, for a period of 18 days, Department of Sociology for the International Conference ‘Shifting Images and Discourses: Revisiting Linkages and Exchanges Between India and Germany’.
• 2008, Research Assistant, for a period of one month, under Prof. Kamala Ganesh, Dept. of Sociology, for preparing a paper for the Oxford Round Table Conference on ‘Women in the Modern World: The Struggle for Equality’.
• 2006, Field Assistant, for a period of seven months, under Prof. B. V. Bhosale, Dept. of Sociology, on International Collaboration project entitled Social Representations of Globalization, University of Picardie, France.
• 2005, Research Assistant, for a period of three months, under Prof. P. G. Jogdand, Dept. of Sociology, for the project entitled ‘Social Justice Philanthropy in India’.

She has been with Sophia College since 1989 and retired as an Associate Professor in 2020. She was a Reader and Head of the Department of Sociology. She was awarded her doctorate in the year 2003. She has served as faculty at the Department of Sociology, University of Mumbai. She was also a Board of Studies (Sociology) member at the University of Mumbai.

MPhil Thesis on “Tribal Welfare in India a Comparative study of the works of Verrier Elwin and Dr G.S. Ghurye”.

PhD Thesis on “The Contribution of Dr Stephen Fuchs to Anthropology”.

Areas of specialization: are Human Resource Development and Anthropology

Memberships held: Member Board of Studies, Member Faculty of Arts, Member of International Sociological Association. Life Member of Indian Sociological Society.

Member of various Research Committees: ISA 13 - Sociology of Leisure, 14 - Culture and Communication, ISS 16 - Urban and Industrial Studies and 41- Sociology of Population.

Participated and presented papers at National Conferences and International Forums / World Congress and Conferences in Argentina, Japan. Papers presented cover areas like Water, Leadership, Leisure and Family, Microfinance Empowering Women, Vadvals maintaining identity, Kolis retaining culture through festivals

Awards and scholarships attained to support these research studies:

FIP Faculty Improvement Programme UGC – (1999 to 2001).

9th Five year Plan Study Leave to complete the PhD with full pay and substitute for two academic years with Contingency grant.

The Lobo-Dubey Research Scholarship for the year 2011-2012

The Rotary Club of Bombay Mid –Town Smt Sumitra Devi Jatia Scholarship 2013-2014.

ICSSR Minor Research Grant - June 2013 from Research Projects Division ICSSR Western Region.

Other Activities:

Convenor of the Outreach Programme, for leprosy education, rehabilitation and treatment in collaboration with NGO Alert India. for the past eight years. The programme sensitizes Sociology students to cultivate values of thinking of and helping in whatever way possible the challenged and less fortunate

Oversee the activities of the department students for Cankids party

NSS Programme Officer 2014