We are pleased to welcome Dr. Sonalini Sapra (she/her/hers) as the new assistant director for UNCG’s Institute for Community and Economic Engagement (ICEE)!
Many of you may already have collaborated with Sonalini as she is a valued member of our Greensboro community. She brings her experience as a community-engaged scholar who has successfully navigated the multiple roles of teaching, research, professional service, public service, and administration as a tenured faculty member, a director of academic programs, and as an administrator of a center.
Sonalini joins us from Guilford College where she has served as the Assistant Director for the Center for Principled Problem Solving and Excellence in Teaching (CPPSET). Her work at Guilford centered on supporting and promoting community-engaged teaching, research, and service opportunities for faculty, staff, and students. She has helped facilitate collaborative partnerships with several organizations in the Greensboro area, including Every Campus a Refuge, Center for New North Carolinians, Homeless Union of Greensboro, Sierra Club Piedmont Plateau Group, Democracy Greensboro, Interactive Resource Center, North Carolina Interfaith Power and Light, and the Greensboro Earth Quakers.
She received her Ph.D. in Political Science from Vanderbilt University and has previously taught at Kenyon College, Saint Mary’s College, Saint Martin’s University, and Guilford College. She maintains an active scholarship record authoring and co-authoring diverse forms of scholarship, including books, peer-reviewed journal articles, and other community-based publications. She also serves on the editorial board of the International Feminist Journal of Politics and presents widely. Before returning to graduate school, she worked at a non-governmental labor rights organization in New Delhi doing research and advocacy on the impact that trade liberalization was having on India’s informal workers. She has also worked with several community organizations in the United States and currently serves as an advisory board member and research fellow at the Center for New North Carolinians (CNNC). Her research and teaching interests are in Civic Participation, Transnational Feminisms, Environmental Justice, Forced Migration, Dalit Studies, Social Movements, and the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. She is currently working on a collaborative research project on the liberatory potential of community-led ethical review boards in India. In her spare time, she enjoys exploring Greensboro, cooking, and being a parent to her wonderfully wild and stubborn 5-year old daughter.
As ICEE strives to connect, convene, and celebrate our community-engaged scholars, we welcome our newest member to the ICEE and UNCG family! Welcome, Sonalini!
-Dr. Emily Janke, ICEE Director
