Deepa Kumar

Deepa Kumar is an internationally renowned scholar of anti-Muslim racism. Her acclaimed book Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire has been translated into five languages, with a fully revised and expanded second edition published in 2021. She has authored over 90 publications, including books, peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, and essays in both independent and mainstream media.

Kumar has given dozens of lectures at universities around the world and participated in over 200 media interviews, sharing her insights through outlets such as the BBC and The New York Times. As a public intellectual, her work has had a significant impact beyond academia. 

At Rutgers University, she served as vice-president and president of the Rutgers AAUP-AFT academic union. Over the course of a decade, she brought a sustained and transformative focus on race and gender equity to the union, advancing an intersectional approach to labor organizing and institutional change. She founded and co-chaired the University Committee on Diversity, Race, and Gender, where she led the development and implementation of several university-wide initiatives. She was also the inaugural chair of the STRIDE committee at New Brunswick.

Her contributions have been recognized with numerous honors, including the AAUP’s Marilyn Sternberg Award and the Georgina Smith Award. Notably, she was the first associate professor to receive the Dallas Smythe Award for her engaged scholarship.

Kumar is currently working on a book under contract with the University of California Press tentatively titled Weaponizing Terrorism: Racialized Security in the Neoliberal Era.

Ph.D., Communication, University of Pittsburgh
M.A., Mass Communication, Bowling Green State University
M.S., Mass Communication, Bangalore University
B.S., Physics and Mathematics, St. Josephs College

Culture and Cognition Network
Sociology Department 
Center for Middle Eastern Studies
Power and Inequality Working Group