The CCSP Director
Manisha Desai | Executive Director
Manisha Desai serves as the Executive Director of the Center for Changing Systems of Power. She is also a professor in the Department of Sociology and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Her research delves into transnational feminism, women’s human rights, gender and globalization, and contemporary Indian society to theorize with marginalized communities in their pursuit of social justice. Methodologically, her work investigates power dynamics in knowledge production and advocates for co-produced knowledge to transform unequal social relations. Manisha employs a critical feminist lens that seeks to decolonize knowledge production and contribute to social justice even as it problematizes those efforts.
Currently, she is engaged in research on women's rights, land rights, and climate justice in India and the Northeastern United States. Her work aims to understand how Dalit women farmers in India and women farmers of color in the United States bring together issues of land rights, and women's economic, social, and political rights to address climate change. Furthermore, Manisha is involved in the Global Research and Action Network on the Eco-Social Contract at the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development. Here, she collaborates with academics, community members, and policymakers from various countries to promote climate justice.
In addition, Manisha is working on reframing diversity, equity, and inclusion as justice, equity, and transformation to ensure that issues of systemic racism and inequalities are addressed structurally. Committed to decolonizing knowledge production and academia, she serves on the Steering Committee of the Federation of Feminist Journal Editors. The Federation aims to establish a feminist knowledge commons outside commercial publishing to facilitate the free circulation of feminist knowledge across borders and language barriers.