SOULIT CHACKO, Ph.D
Department of Sociology | Boise State University
Email: soulitchacko@boisestate.edu.
CURRENT EMPLOYMENT
2022 – Current Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, Boise State University, Boise, ID
2020 – 2022 Postdoctoral Fellow, Religion and Urban Culture 2.0. Project,
Associate Instructor in Sociology at IUPUI– Indianapolis, IN
2020 – 2022 Faculty Research Fellow- Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture, IUPUI – Indianapolis, IN
AREAS OF SPECIALIZATION
Sociology of Race and Ethnicity; Immigration; Transnationalism; Gender and Sexuality, Work, Body and Embodiment; Ethnography; Asian & South Asian Diaspora
EDUCATION
2020 (Dec) Ph.D., Sociology, Loyola University, Chicago
Dissertation: Shaping Beauty and Creating Space: Gender, Work, and Immigration Experiences of Low-Wage Immigrant Women Workers
2014 (Dec) M.A. Sociology, Loyola University, Chicago
2010 (May) B.A. Urban Planning and Public Affairs, University of Illinois at Chicago
PUBLICATIONS
Peer Reviewed Articles
Banerjee, Pallavi, Soulit Chacko, and Bhumika Piya. 2020. “Paradoxes of Being and Becoming South Asian Single-Mothers: The Enclave Economy, Patriarchy and Migration,” Vol 8:1 Journal of Women, Gender, and Families of Color
Banerjee, Pallavi, Soulit Chacko, Souzan Korsha, 2022. “Toll of the Covid-19 Pandemic on the Primary Caregiver in Yazidi Refugee Families in Canada: A Feminist Refugee Epistemological Analysis.” Vol 16:1 in special issue of Studies in Social Justice: Borders, Boundaries, and the Impact of COVID-19 on Immigration to Canada.
Other Publications
The Illinois TRUST Act: Welcoming Immigrant Families and Enhancing Security for All. Research Brief presented to the Illinois Legislatures (co-edited with Ruth Gomberg-Munoz, PhD; James Manos PhD, Dan Cooper PhD and Nathan Ellstrand MA)
Chacko, Soulit. 2017. Review of “London Youth, Religion, and Politics: Engagement and Activism from Brixton to Brick Lane” by Daniel Nilsson DeHanas (Oxford University Press, 2016). International Migration Review
GRANTS & SCHOLARSHIP
2021 Jack Shand Research Grant, Society for Scientific Study of Religion, (PI; $5,000)
2019 Scholarship to attend 16th ISA International workshop for Ph.D. students at the University of A Coruña, Spain
2019 External Research Grant, Midwest Sociological Society, (Consultant with PI: Pallavi Banerjee; $2000)
AWARDS, HONORS, & FELLOWSHIPS
2022 Early Career Fellow – Work and Family Research Network
2021
2019-2020 Graduating Student Commencement Speaker. The Graduate School,
Loyola University Chicago May 2021.
Graduate Assistantship, The Graduate School, Loyola University Chicago
2019 Robert McNamara Award for Best Paper in Sociology of Religion, Department of Sociology, Loyola University Chicago.
2018-2019 Arthur J. Schmitt Dissertation Fellowship, Loyola University Chicago
2017-2018 Child and Family Research Assistantship, Loyola University Chicago
2016-2017 Merit Award, Graduate School, Loyola University Chicago
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
2020-2022 Associate Instructor in Sociology, Indiana University Purdue University (IUPUI)
● Sexuality and Society (Soc 320) (Online & In-person)
2020 Instructor in Sociology, Assumption University
● Principles of Sociology (Soc 121) (Online)
2016 – 2017
Instructor of Record, Loyola University Chicago
● Sociology of Sex and Gender (Soc 171)
2016 – 2017 Instructor of Record, Roosevelt University, Chicago
● Sociology of Family (Soc 215)
PRESENTATIONS AND PANELS
2021. “Religion & Refugees and Immigration: Conversations on the State of Religion and the
Current Moment” Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture, IUPUI, Panel
Presentation. (Co-host)
2020. “Experiencing Gender in the Informal Beauty Industry.” Invited presenter for Friday
Feminist Salon at Sociology, University of Calgary
2020. “”Framing the Unskilled Worker: Immigrant Women Workers in the Ethnic Beauty Salons.” IV ISA Forum of Sociology, Porto Alegre, Brazil. (Conference rescheduled due to COVID-19)
2020. “Gender, Race, Religion, and Resettlement Experiences of Rohingya Refugees in the United States” (with Dr. Pallavi Banerjee, University of Calgary), Midwest Sociological Society (Conference cancelled due to COVID-19)
2019. “They treat me like a Family. But I wish they also Paid me more:” Immigrant Women Workers in the Ethnic Enclave Economy.” 63rd session of the Commission on the Status of Women, United Nations, NY (March 13, 2019)
2018. ““I am still waiting for my story to start:” Working Class Immigrant Women Workers and Their Transnational Lives in the U.S.” Canadian Ethnic Studies Association Conference, Alberta, CA (October 12, 2018)
2017. “Immigrant Women in Ethnic Beauty Salon Business,” American Sociological Association, Montreal, CA, (August 13, 2017)
2017. “Second-Generation Indians Navigating the Ethnic and Religious Identities,” American Sociological Association, Montreal, CA, (August 15, 2017)
2016. “Feminist Reflections Across the Early Academic Life Course: Pedagogy, Research and Service” Workshop, Midwest Sociological Association, Chicago, IL, (March 25, 2016)
2015. “Politics of Subaltern: Dance Forms in the Knowledge Building Process,” National Women’s Studies Association, Milwaukee, WI, (November 14, 2015)
2015. “Reimagining Women’s Political Leadership: The Power of Grassroots Politics in Urban Peru and Bengaluru, India” (with Kyle Woolley, Loyola University, Chicago), Society for the Study of Social Problems, Chicago, IL, (August 23, 2015)
2014. “‘This is Not a Space for Politics, This is a Church’: Generational conflict among Malayalee Christian Indian Americans” (with Dr. Rhys H. Williams (Chair, Loyola University, Chicago), Society for Scientific Study of Religion, Indianapolis, IN, (November 02, 2014)
2013. “‘Jai Ho’: Indian Youth in Diaspora, Bollywood and Politics of Embodied Nation, the Racial and Feminine Other” (with Dr. Pallavi Banerjee, Vanderbilt University), National Women’s Studies Association, Cincinnati, OH, (November 09, 2013)
2013. “Finding God in America: Formation of Racial and Religious Identity among Second-Generation Indian-Americans,” Southern Sociological Society, Atlanta, GA, (April 27, 2013)
2013. “Second-Generation Indian American Wrestling with Gender and Religious Identity,” Sociologists for Women in Society, Albuquerque, NM, (February 09, 2013)
2012. “Inter Ethnic and Inter Racial Dating and Marriage among Asian American Indian Youth: Formation of Racial, Ethnic and Gender Identities” (with Pallavi Banerjee, UIC), Midwest Sociological Society, Minneapolis, MN, (April 01, 2012)
SERVICE TO THE DEPARTMENT AND PROFESSION
2021
2020
2016-2019 Panel Moderator “Family and Kinship: Parent-child and Other Familial Ties” ASA
Panel Moderator “Immigration and Gender” ASA
Manuscript Reviewer: Gender and Society
2016-2019 Graduate Mentor, Department of Sociology, Loyola University Chicago
2017 Student Representative for Faculty Hiring Committee
2017 Discussant, Chicago Area Group for the Study of Religious Communities
2016-2017 Organizer: Sociology of Religion working group, Department of Sociology, Loyola University Chicago
2016-2017 Graduate Student Representative, Sociology, Loyola University, Chicago
COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES AND SERVICES
2020- Present Member of the Advocacy Team – Exodus Refugee Immigration
2020- Present Member of NAPAWF (National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum) Indiana Chapter
2018-2019 Volunteer at St. Ignatius Church Food Pantry
2015-2016 Volunteer at Heartland Alliance – Refugee and Immigrant Community Services, Chicago
2010-2011 Volunteer – Women for Economic Justice, Chicago, IL
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS
American Sociological Association, Sociologists for Women in Society, National Women’s Studies Association, International Sociological Association, Association for Asian American Studies
ANALYTICAL SKILLS
NVivo Qualitative Software
SPSS Quantitative Software
Other Survey Software (Qualtrics)
LANGUAGES
English (native), Hindi (fluent), Urdu (basic conversational)