Profile
Dr. Madhulika Sonkar is Assistant Professor of Sociology and Social Anthropology at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, India. Her work engages the politics of schooling cultures, identities, and aspirations in fraught urban contexts, with a strong focus on minority communities in contemporary India. Her PhD (University of Delhi) was based on the ethnographic study of a five-decade old Muslim girls’ school in the historic walled city of Delhi where she examined young women’s educational experiences in the complex mesh of class, beraderi, kin networks, and neighbourhood. She has been an editorial member at the Feminist Review Collective since 2021.
Publications
Madhulika’s publications in the Kohl, Feminist Review, Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education, and The Indian Express, among others, have interrogated the play of educational processes and practices among children and youth across diverse socio-political contexts.
Sonkar, M., Lee, P.-H., Kim, K., & Ung Loh, J. (2024). active listening and checking-in as feminist pedagogy against neoliberal university practice. Feminist Review, 136(1), 43-51.
2024. ‘Taleem, Hunar, Tarbiyat: Meanings of Education and Vocation for Muslim Women in Old Delhi’ in Studies in religion and the everyday Edited by Farhana Ibrahim, Oxford University Press, New Delhi.
2021. Journeys between Khauf and Khairiyat: Thinking through friendship in the ‘field’. Kohl: Journal of Body and Gender research. 7(1): 123-138. (Co-authored with Benazir Ruqayya)
2020. 'Power, Positionality and Ethnography in Educational Research' in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Qualitative Research Methods in Education ed. by George W. Noblit, Oxford University Press, New York.
2020. 'Perspectives in the Sociology of Education and NEP 2020: A Conversation with Professor Meenakshi Thapan'. The JMC Review. Volume 4, Pp. 293-307.
2019. Power, Positionality and Ethnography in Educational Research. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264093.013.482
2018. ‘Right Relationship' between Teachers and Students: Ethnographic Unraveling of Krishnamurti's Ideas in Practice at Rishi Valley School’ in J. Krishnamurti and Educational Practice: Social and Moral Vision for Inclusive Education ed. by M. Thapan, Oxford University Press, Delhi.
