Radhika Mongia
Associate Professor
Office: Vari Hall, 2080
Phone: (416) 736-2100 Ext: 66406
Email: rmongia@yorku.ca
A major trajectory of my research is situated at the intersection of history, law, and political theory and explores the makings of the global modern. Using multi-archive research in India, Britain, Mauritius, Canada, and South Africa, my work has examined the regulation of Indian migration in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to investigate the place of colonial formations in the making of modern migration regimes and of the modern state, more broadly. Rather than understanding colonial and metropolitan state formations either as distinct entities or as shaped by a relationship of diffusion or mimesis, I foreground their historical coproduction and their current legacies. These investigations are the subject of my first book, Indian Migration and Empire: A Colonial Genealogy of the Modern State (Duke University Press, 2018 and Permanent Black Press, India, 2019). Interviews discussing the book are available on the New Books Network Podcast and the De Verbranders Podcast.
My current book project, tentatively titled “Citizenship Deprivation: Legality, Bureaucracy, and the Everyday,” is focused on the citizenship regime in postcolonial India. The project examines a range of issues, including the constitutional implications of recent statutory measures; the changing bureaucratic techniques and evidentiary requirements authorizing and verifying citizenship/identity; the production of statelessness; the formation of a widening architecture of detention and “crimmigration;” and the lived experience of citizenship/citizenship deprivation. Whereas my first book showed how an exploration of aspects of colonial Indian migration can offer insights into the formation of a global regime of migration control, my current project is interested in illuminating how global trends inform particular national trajectories in demarcating the difference between the citizen and the migrant.
In addition to various edited volumes, my work has appeared in journals such as Public Culture, Gender and History, Comparative Studies in Society and History, Cultural Studies, Journal of World-Systems Research, Cultural Dynamics, AJIL–Unbound (American Journal of International Law–Unbound).
I serve on the advisory board of Citizenship Studies and on the editorial college of Migration Politics.
In addition to the Graduate Program in Sociology, I am faculty with the graduate programs in Social and Political Thought, Gender, Feminist and Women’s Studies, and Politics. I am a faculty associate with the York Centre for Asian Research (YCAR) and the Centre for Feminist Research (CFR). I have served as the director of the Graduate Program in Sociology and as the associate director of YCAR.
Degrees
PhD, Communication, University of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignMA, Communication, Northern Illinois University
MSc, Mathematics, Northern Illinois University (completed all coursework)
BA, Mathematics, Miranda House College, University of Delhi
Research Interests
Approach to Teaching
Graduate Teaching:
GS/SOCI 5901: Key Debates in Sociological Theory (MA course)
GS/GFWS 6009: Advanced Research in Feminist Theory
GS/SOCI 6090: Selected Topics in Empirical Methods (Topic: Archives, Interviews, Data: Reflections on Method)
GS/SOCI 6090: Selected Topics in Empirical Methods (Topic: Historical Methods)
GS/SOCI 6180: Sex and Gender in Social Theory
GS/SOCI 6200: Contemporary Topics in Social Theory (Topic: Postcolonial Theory)
GS/SPTH 6221: Postcolonial Thought
GS/SPTH 6665: Theorizing Modernity and Problems of Postcolonial Theorizations
GS/SOCI 6745: The Making of Asian Studies: Critical Perspectives
Undergraduate Teaching:
SOCI 1010: Introduction to Sociology
SOCI 4000: Honors Thesis
SOCI 4350: Immigration and Citizenship
SOCI 4390: Transnationalism and Diaspora
SOCI 4615: Feminist Theories and Methodologies
Upcoming Courses
| Term | Course Number | Section | Title | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winter 2026 | AP/SOCI4430 3.0 | M | Human Displacement & Refugees: Global | SEMR |
| Fall/Winter 2025 | AP/SOCI1010 6.0 | A | Introduction to Sociology | LECT |
| Fall 2025 | GS/SOCI6090 3.0 | A | Selected Topics In Empirical Methods | SEMR |
A major trajectory of my research is situated at the intersection of history, law, and political theory and explores the makings of the global modern. Using multi-archive research in India, Britain, Mauritius, Canada, and South Africa, my work has examined the regulation of Indian migration in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to investigate the place of colonial formations in the making of modern migration regimes and of the modern state, more broadly. Rather than understanding colonial and metropolitan state formations either as distinct entities or as shaped by a relationship of diffusion or mimesis, I foreground their historical coproduction and their current legacies. These investigations are the subject of my first book, Indian Migration and Empire: A Colonial Genealogy of the Modern State (Duke University Press, 2018 and Permanent Black Press, India, 2019). Interviews discussing the book are available on the New Books Network Podcast and the De Verbranders Podcast.
My current book project, tentatively titled “Citizenship Deprivation: Legality, Bureaucracy, and the Everyday,” is focused on the citizenship regime in postcolonial India. The project examines a range of issues, including the constitutional implications of recent statutory measures; the changing bureaucratic techniques and evidentiary requirements authorizing and verifying citizenship/identity; the production of statelessness; the formation of a widening architecture of detention and “crimmigration;” and the lived experience of citizenship/citizenship deprivation. Whereas my first book showed how an exploration of aspects of colonial Indian migration can offer insights into the formation of a global regime of migration control, my current project is interested in illuminating how global trends inform particular national trajectories in demarcating the difference between the citizen and the migrant.
In addition to various edited volumes, my work has appeared in journals such as Public Culture, Gender and History, Comparative Studies in Society and History, Cultural Studies, Journal of World-Systems Research, Cultural Dynamics, AJIL–Unbound (American Journal of International Law–Unbound).
I serve on the advisory board of Citizenship Studies and on the editorial college of Migration Politics.
In addition to the Graduate Program in Sociology, I am faculty with the graduate programs in Social and Political Thought, Gender, Feminist and Women’s Studies, and Politics. I am a faculty associate with the York Centre for Asian Research (YCAR) and the Centre for Feminist Research (CFR). I have served as the director of the Graduate Program in Sociology and as the associate director of YCAR.
Degrees
PhD, Communication, University of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignMA, Communication, Northern Illinois University
MSc, Mathematics, Northern Illinois University (completed all coursework)
BA, Mathematics, Miranda House College, University of Delhi
Research Interests
Approach to Teaching
Graduate Teaching:
GS/SOCI 5901: Key Debates in Sociological Theory (MA course)
GS/GFWS 6009: Advanced Research in Feminist Theory
GS/SOCI 6090: Selected Topics in Empirical Methods (Topic: Archives, Interviews, Data: Reflections on Method)
GS/SOCI 6090: Selected Topics in Empirical Methods (Topic: Historical Methods)
GS/SOCI 6180: Sex and Gender in Social Theory
GS/SOCI 6200: Contemporary Topics in Social Theory (Topic: Postcolonial Theory)
GS/SPTH 6221: Postcolonial Thought
GS/SPTH 6665: Theorizing Modernity and Problems of Postcolonial Theorizations
GS/SOCI 6745: The Making of Asian Studies: Critical Perspectives
Undergraduate Teaching:
SOCI 1010: Introduction to Sociology
SOCI 4000: Honors Thesis
SOCI 4350: Immigration and Citizenship
SOCI 4390: Transnationalism and Diaspora
SOCI 4615: Feminist Theories and Methodologies
Upcoming Courses
| Term | Course Number | Section | Title | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winter 2026 | AP/SOCI4430 3.0 | M | Human Displacement & Refugees: Global | SEMR |
| Fall/Winter 2025 | AP/SOCI1010 6.0 | A | Introduction to Sociology | LECT |
| Fall 2025 | GS/SOCI6090 3.0 | A | Selected Topics In Empirical Methods | SEMR |
