MITU SENGUPTA
Phone: 4183
Office: JOR806
E-mail: msenguptapolitics.ryerson.ca

Dr. Mitu Sengupta is an Associate Professor in the Department of Politics and Public Administration, and a member of the Yeates School of Graduate Studies, at Ryerson University. She is also a faculty affiliate with the Institute of Economic Growth in New Delhi, India.

Mitu holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of Toronto, a Master of Arts and a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Political Science from McGill University, and a US high school diploma from Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, Maryland. Mitu’s PhD dissertation, on the politics of market reform in India, was one of three theses short-listed for the Canadian Political Science Association’s biennial Vincent Lemieux Prize in 2005. Prior to her PhD studies and employment at Ryerson, Mitu worked as a consultant for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and an editorial writer in India. She also lectured at the University of Toronto, York University, and the University of Guelph.

Mitu has published widely on Indian market liberalization and development, on labour and migration, and on the politics of sporting and cultural events. These writings are united by a concern for how knowledge about poverty, inequality, and “development” is produced, disseminated, interpreted, and understood. Her newer research builds upon these critical inquiries to engage more directly with linking theory to practice. It is concerned with the creation of legal frameworks and policy interventions for poverty eradication in India and other developing countries, and for social and global justice. Mitu’s interest and initiatives in these areas are connected to her work as the head of research for the Centre for Development and Human Rights (CDHR), a New Delhi-based non-profit organization, and as a member of the Board of Directors of Academics Stand Against Poverty (ASAP), an international network, founded at Yale University, that aims to leverage the resources of academia towards the end of eradicating global poverty.

Mitu has received many citations and awards for her teaching, including a Faculty of Arts Dean’s Teaching Award in 2009-10, and a short-listing (one of three) for the Canadian Political Science Association’s biennial Teaching Excellence Award in 2012. She has taught courses in the politics and political economy of development, global cities, gender and development, human rights and global politics, Third World politics, comparative public policy, and public policy and administration in developing countries.

In 2012-2013, she will teach two undergraduate courses - POG424 (“Human Rights and Global Politics”) and POG323 (“Politics of Development”) - and one graduate-level course in the Master of Arts in Public Policy and Public Administration (MPPA) program - PA8216 (“International Development Policy and Administration”). She will also serve as the department’s Undergraduate Program Director.

Her academic publications include:

  • “Poverty, Inequality and Liberalization: A Tale of Two Indias.” In Civilizing Globalization: A Survival Guide, ed. Richard Sandbrook and Ali Guven. Albany NY: SUNY Press (forthcoming).
  • “Anna Hazare's Anti-Corruption Movement: Testing the Limits of Mass Mobilization in India.” Social Movement Studies (forthcoming).
  • “The Politics of ‘Non Place’ and the 2010 Commonwealth Games: An Urban Transformation Analyzed.” Transcultural Studies, forthcoming.
  • “A Million Dollar Exit from the Slum-World: ‘Slumdog Millionaire’s Troubling Formula for Social Justice.” Chapter 6 in The “Slumdog” Phenomenon: A Critical Anthology, ed. Ajay Gehlawat, 69-89. New York: Anthem Press, 2013.
  • “Bihar: Many Milestones Crossed, but Mountains Still to Move (A Report on the Global Summit on Changing Bihar, 2012).” Indian Journal of Human Development 6:1 (2012): 119-125.  
  • “Anna Hazare and the Gandhian Ideal.” Journal of Asian Studies, 71:03 (August 2012): 593-601.
  • "Race Relations Lights Years from Earth."  In Signs of Life in the USA: Readings on Popular Culture for Writers, 7th ed, ed. Sonia Maasik and Jack Solomon, 412-16.  New York:  Bedford/St. Martin's, 2011.
  • "World Class Dreams and Urban Change: A Critique of the 2010 Commonwealth Games."  Indian Journal of Human Development 4:2 (2010): 433-443. 
  • Review of South Asia: Rising to the Challenge of Globalization by Pradumna B. Rana and J. Malcolm Dowling.  Pacific Affairs 83:4 (December 2010): 813-14.
  • “A Million Dollar Exit from the Anarchic Slum-World: Slumdog Millionaire’s Hollow Idioms of Social Justice.” Third World Quarterly 31:4 (June 2010):  599-616.
  • Review of India’s Middle Class: New Forms of Urban Leisure, Consumption and Prosperity by Christiane Brosius.  Biblio: A Review of Books XV:3-4 (March-April 2010): 8-9.
  • “From ‘Hard Sell’ to ‘Soft Sell’:  The IMF, World Bank and Indian Liberalization.” World Affairs 14:1 (Spring 2010): 112-137.
  • “Reductive Realities and Empty Humanism: A Critique of 'Born into Brothels' and 'Slumdog Millionaire'.” Indian Journal of Human Development 3:2  (July-December 2009): 367-378.
  • “Economic Liberalization, Democratic Expansion, and Organized Labour in India:  Towards a New Politics of Revival?”  Just Labour: A Canadian Journal of Work and Society 14 (Autumn 2009): 13-32.
  • “Making the State Change Its Mind - The IMF, the World Bank, and the Politics of India’s Market Reforms.” New Political Economy 14:4 (June 2009), 181-210.
  • "Labour Power and India's Market Reforms: The Politics of Decline and the Politics of Survival." Indian Journal of LabourEconomics 51:4 (October-December 2008), 9983-992.
  • “How the State Changed Its Mind:  Power, Politics, and the Origins of India’s Market Reforms.” Economic and Political Weekly (May 24, 2008), 35-42.
  • “Protecting Migrant Workers in the Twenty-First Century: Challenges for Rich Democracies.” World Affairs 11:3 (Autumn, 2007), 86-116. 

Dr. Sengupta has also published political commentaries and analyses in such venues as  AlterNet, The Asian Age, Canadian Dimension, CounterPunch, Dissent Magazine, Dissident Voice, La Estrella (Panama), Frontline (India), Green Left Weekly, Kafila.org, Monthly Review's MRZine, the Hindustan Times (India), The Nation (Pakistan), The Pioneer, Rabble.ca, Relay: A Socialist Project Review, Ryeberg, Ryerson Free Press, State of Nature, This Magazine, the Toronto Star, and Z Magazine.  Dr. Sengupta’s public articles have been widely cited and translated into multiple languages. They include:

  • Review of Behind the Beautiful Forevers:  Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity, Katherine Boo. [New York: Random House, 2012].  Dissent (09 May 2012).
  • "Naming the Seven Billionth Child," Kafila.org, November 5, 2011
  • India’s ‘New Gandhi,’ the Left and Democracy.” State of Nature: An online journal of radical ideas (Autumn 2011): “Democracy.”
  • “Anna Hazare and the Gandhian Ideal,” Dissent Magazine, 23 August 2011.
    • reprinted on www.3quarksdaily.com, 30 August 2011.
    • reprinted in Truthout, 02 September 2011.
    • an extended version appeared as “Anna Hazare and the Idea of Gandhi,” Counterpunch, 29 August 2011.
      • reprinted in the Sri Lanka Guardian, 29 August 2011.
      • reprinted in The Journal of Foreign Relations, 30 August 2011.
    • an extended version appeared as “Anna Hazare in the Light of Gandhian Ideals” in Monthly Review’s MRZine, 01 September 2011.
  • “A Tale of Two Indias: Twenty Years of Liberalization,” Dissent Magazine, 15 August 2011.
    • reprinted in Truthout, 25 September 2011.
  • “The Language of the Unheard?” The Pioneer, 13 August 2011: Saturday Special, p. 9.
  • “India’s World Class Heist,” Counterpunch, 8 August 2011
    • reprinted in Monthly Review’s MRZine, 9 August 2011
    • reprinted in The Nation (Pakistan), 9 August 2011.
  • “India’s Convenient Villains,” CounterPunch, 02 May 2011.
    • an extended version appeared as “India’s Easy Villains,” Monthly Review’s MRZine, 04 May 2011.
  • “Arjun Sengupta: A Daughter's Tribute,” The Asian Age, 15 October 2010, p. 14.
  • “India’s Games of Shame: Delhi’s Commonwealth Games.” Z Magazine 10:10 (October 2010): 21-24.
  • “Mud, Hubris, and Malevolent Urban Change: India’s Commonwealth Games,” Dissident Voice, 05 August 2010.
    • reprinted in Green Left Weekly (Australia), 07 August 2010
    • reprinted in Canadian Dimension (online), 09 August 2010.
    • reprinted in Canadian Dimension 44:6 (November/December 2010): 14-17.
  • “The Price of Being World Class,” Counterpunch, 30 July - 01 August 2010.
  • “The 2010 Commonwealth Games: Delhi’s Worrying Transformation, Monthly Review’s MRZine, 19 July 2010.
  • “Toronto’s G20: Remembering Politics, Celebrating Activism,” Monthly Review’s MRZine, 06 July 2010.
  • “Sex, the City and American Patriotism,” Counterpunch, 18-21 June 2010(Weekend Edition)
    • reprinted in Dissident Voice, 18 June 2010
  • “On Slums: Towards a Change in Perspective.” Rights and Development Bulletin - Centre for Development and Human Rights 1:16 (February-May 2010): 4-6.
  • “Altruism at the Oscars: Legitimizing Racism, Inequality and Imperial Design,” Rabble.ca, 06 March, 2010.
  • “Hollywood’s Predatory Altruism,” Monthly Review’s MRZine, 03 March, 2010.
  • “Avatar: Race Relations Light Years from Earth,” Ryeberg, curated video, 01 February 2010.
    • reprinted as “Will Avatar's Racial Politics Bother Oscar Voters?” AlterNet, 03 February 2010.
  • “The Left’s Electoral Debacle in India: Moving Toward an Explanation.” Relay: A Socialist Project Review 26 (April-June 2009): 55-58.
  • “Bombs, Bombshells, and Bollywood,” Ryeberg, curated video, 25 June 2009.
  • “After India’s Elections: Understanding the Congress Party’s Revival,” Rabble.ca, 22 May 2009.
    • Also appeared as “The Resurrection of India’s Congress Party: A Worrying Road Ahead,” Monthly Review’s MRZine, 22 May 2009.
  • “Why Wiping Out Insurgents Won’t Bring Peace to Sri Lanka,” AlterNet, 5 May 2009.
  • “The Bloodbath in Sri Lanka: Why Battering the Tamil Tigers Won’t Bring Peace,” Counterpunch, 27 April 2009.
    • reprinted in Ryerson Free Press, May 2009, p. 13
    • reprinted in La Estrella (Panama).
  • “Hollow Message,” Frontline: India’s National Magazine 26:6 (14-16 March 2009).
  • “The World Bank’s Reforms: Different Image, Same Tune?” Monthly Review’s MRZine, 11 March 2009.
    • reprinted in Mainstream XLVII:44 (17 October 2009)
    • reprinted in Counterpunch, 11 March 2009.
  • “Slumdog Millionaire’s Troubling Policy Implications,” The Toronto Star, 21 February 2009.
  • “Slumdog Millionaire’s Dehumanizing View of India’s Poor,” Counterpunch, 20-22 February 2009.
    • reprinted in Green Left Weekly (Australia), 4 March 2009, p. 21.
  • “What Mumbai Means,” This Magazine, 5 December 2008.
  • “A Summer’s Reading.” The PPALiticus (Newsletter of the Politics and Public Administration Alumni) 1:3 (Fall 2008): 3.
  • “The Challenge of Our Century: Recognizing the Rights of Migrant Workers in Rich Democracies.” Rights and Development Bulletin (Centre for Development and Human Rights) 1:3 (April 2007): 4-7.
  • “Lagaan’s Oscar Hopes,” The Hindustan Times, 15 January 2002.