Vandana Chaudhry is an Associate Professor in the Department of Social Work at the City University of New York – College of Staten Island. Dr. Chaudhry joined CSI in 2012 after completing her PhD in Social Work and Disability Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her research focuses on disability in the Global South, digitalization, neoliberal governance, disability justice, and culturally competent practices. Her multi-year ethnographic work explores disability at the nexus of digitalization, development, globalization, and the politics of subject-formation in India, through the examination of digital disability pensions, microfinance and community-based approaches. Her scholarship offers analysis of how big data, algorithmic regimes, and biometric technologies are reshaping disability welfare systems, restricting access to government benefits, and in the process reconfiguring the category of disability.
Dr. Chaudhry has published widely across the disciplines of disability studies, social work, and interdisciplinary social sciences, with her work appearing in Disability and Society, International Social Work, and Qualitative Inquiry, among others. Her article “Living at the Edge: Disability, Gender, and Neoliberal Debtscapes of Microfinance in India” received the 2016 Affilia Award for Distinguished Feminist Scholarship and Praxis in Social Work. Her work has been supported by the Center for Democracy and Technology, Ford Foundation, National Science Foundation, and CUNY, among others. She also regularly provides expert opinion and consultation to disability policy and advocacy organizations such as the UN –Enable, various disability state agencies, and disabled peoples’ organizations locally and globally.
Degrees
Ph.D. University of Illinois, Chicago
Master of Philosophy in Social Work, Delhi School of Social Work
M.S.W., University of Delhi
B.A., University of Delhi
Savin, K., Chung, E., Jones, N., Sterzing, P., Chaudhry, V. (2024). Lessons from Critical and Transnational Disability Perspectives for Social Work. Sociology and Social Welfare, (Special issue on: Disability Justice in Social Work).(In print, to be published 2024).
Chaudhry, V. (2023). Biopolitics of Disability Determination: Consequences of Austere Biomedical Assessment Regimes. Global Social Policy, 23(1), 176-179. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/146801812211458242.
Yap, J., Chaudhry, V., Jha, C. Mani, S., & Mitra, S. (2020). Are Responses to the Pandemic Inclusive? A Rapid Virtual Audit of COVID-19 Press Briefings in LMICs. World Development. DOI:10.1016/j.worlddev.2020.105122 (Online first).
Chaudhry, V. (2019). Disability in and through rural worlds. Somatosphere: Science, Medicine and Anthropology. Themed issue: “Disability from the South?” http://somatosphere.net/2019/disability-in-and-through-rural-worlds.html(Open access; online).
Chaudhry, V. (2019). Disability and Colonialism. In Heller, Harris, Gill, & Gould (eds). Disability in American Life: An Encyclopedia of Concepts, Policies, and Controversies. ABC-CLIO Press.
Chaudhry, V. (2018). Centering Embodiment in Disability Research through Performance Ethnography. Qualitative Social Work. DOI: 10.1177/1473325018767728 (Online first)
Chaudhry, V. (2018). Neoliberal Crises of Social Work in the Global South: Ethnography of Individualizing Disability and Empowerment Practice in India. International Social Work. DOI: 10.1177/0020872818767501. (Online first).
Chaudhry, V. (2018). Capacity, Debility and Differential Inclusion: The Politics of Microfinance in South India. Disability Studies Quarterly, 38(1) (Open access; online).
Chaudhry, V. (2018). Knowing Through Tripping: A Performative Praxis for Co-Constructing Knowledge as a Disabled Halfie. Qualitative Inquiry 24(1) 70-82.
Chaudhry, V. (2016). Laboring Self-help: Dialectics of Disability and Development in South India. Somatechnics, 6(2) 179-197.
Chaudhry, V. (2016). Living at the Edge: Disability, Gender, and Neoliberal Debtscapes of Microfinance in India. Affilia, 31(2) 177-191.
Chaudhry, V. (2015). Neoliberal Disorientations: Changing Landscapes of Disability and Governance in India. Disability and Society, 30(8) 1158-1173.
Last Updated: 9/5/2024
