Sutapa Chattopadhyay is a cross-appointed faculty member in Women’s and Gender Studies and Development Studies at St. Francis Xavier University, a research fellow at the Brian Mulroney Institute of Governance, and an editor of Interface (a Journal for and about social movements). Prior to joining StfX, she has worked at various social science and health faculties at universities and research institutes in North America and Europe. She has published over 30 peer-reviewed manuscripts at Interface, ACME; Gender, Place and Culture; Population, Place and Space, Environment and Planning D, Geopolitics, and Capitalism, Nature, Socialism on Indigenous anti-colonial struggles, development-induced dislocation, colonial and post colonial appropriation of bodies and nature, anarch/eco-feminist pedagogies, feminist research methodologies, migrant agency, and border politics. With the support of SSHRC-PEG, she is exploring Mayan resistance to appropriation of their land and rights. This research is couched in gender, development and climate justice. An offshoot of her research on migration is a co-edited book on Migration, Squatting and Radical Autonomy with Routledge and SSHRC Insight Development grant. In the past, she has worked on indigenous colonial and anti-colonial resistance and gendered social transformations from internal dispossession due to environmentally degenerative large projects in Western India. Later on, this research manifested in a book on Politics of Development and Forced Mobility with Palgrave. Her decade-long involvement with social movements and activism led to another co-edited book Handbook of Research Methods and Applications for Social Movements. Along the way, she has volunteered at homeless youth shelters, migrant students/women’s centers, university union, and variously reviewed and supervised students’ writing projects. As a teacher and researcher in development, feminism, and spatial politics, she continues to write on Indigeneity, emancipatory politics, and gender and development justice. She ponders on how and why the world has been organized the way it is and how can she contribute to transforming the world to a better and equitable place that extends respect to human and non-human lives.

Journal Articles & Book Chapters

2024

1. Nasha Ahmed, Levi Gayman and Sutapa Chattopadhyay. In press. Feminist Development Justice as Emancipatory Praxis: Recognizing the Knowledge of Social Movements “From Below”. Meridians. 23 (2). 
2. Laurence Cox, Anna Szoulcha, Alberto Aaribas, and Sutapa Chattopadhyay. 2024. Handbook on Qualitative Methods in Social Movements. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing. 
3. Alberto Aaribas, Anna Szoulcha, Sutapa Chattopadhyay and Laurence Cox. 2024. Introduction. Handbook on Qualitative Methods in Social Movements. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing. 1-23. (all editors equally contributed)
4. Sutapa Chattopadhyay. 2024. Making sense of the Narmada movements through Adivasi narratives. Handbook on Qualitative Methods in Social Movements. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing. 97-213.

2023

5. Riley Olstead and Sutapa Chattopadhyay. 2023. Circles and lines: indigenous ontologies and decolonising climate change education. Settler Colonial Studies. 14 (1):41-58. Contribution:30 percent.

2022

6. Chattopadhyay, Sutapa. 2022. ‘Postcolonial development and Forced Mobility – Gender, Indigeneity and Ecology’. Palgrave – Mobility and Politics Series. London: Palgrave.

2021

7. Sutapa Chattopadhyay and Pierpaolo Mudu. 2021. Accepted with changes. Introduction to the Editorial: Rethinking the ‘migrant position’ around Contested discourses and practices. Geopolitics. Taylor and Francis Group. Impact Factor 3.29.
8. Laurence Cox and Sutapa Chattopadhyay. 2021. Editorial – Open issue. Interface: A journal for and about social movement. 13 (1): 1-6. https://www.interfacejournal.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Interface-13-1-editorial.pdf

2020

9. Sutapa Chattopadhyay and James Tyner. 2020. Lives in Waiting. Geopolitics. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14650045.2020.1819247. Tay… and Francis Group. Impact Factor 3.29. 
10. Johannah-Rae Reyes, Tina Miller, Raegan Gibbings, Amy Cohen, Adaeze Greenidge, Sutapa Chattopadhyay, Levi Gahman. 2020. Activist Geographies. International Encyclopedia of Human Geography. London: Elsevier. 
11. Johannah May Black, Sutapa Chattopadhyay, Riley Chisholm. 2020. Solidarity in times of social distancing: migrants, mutual aid, and COVID-19. Interface: A journal for and about social movement. 12 (1): 182-193. 
12. Sutapa Chattopadhyay, Lesley Wood, Laurence Cox. 2020. Organizing amidst Covid-19. Interface: A journal for and about social movement. 12 (1):10-14. 

2019

13. Chattopadhyay, Sutapa 2019. Borders re/make bodies and bodies are made to make borders: Storying migrant trajectories – Border Imperialism Special Issue. ACME: An International E-Journal for Critical Geographies. https://www.acme-journal.org/index.php/acme/article/view/1428.  
14. Chattopadhyay, Sutapa. 2019. Introduction to the Special Issue. Violence on Bodies: Space, Social reproduction and Intersectionality. Gender, Place and Culture. Taylor and Francis Group. [Peer-Reviewed]
15. Chattopadhyay, Sutapa 2019. ‘Infiltrating academy through anarcha – (eco)feminist pedagogical framework.’ Capitalism Nature Socialism, Taylor and Francis Group. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10455752.2019.1574846.  
16. Chattopadhyay, Sutapa, Gahman, Levi and Watson, Judith 2019. ‘Eco-socialism and Radicalized pedagogies in Everyday Academy.’ Special Issue with Capitalism Nature Socialism, Taylor and Francis Group.

2018

17. Chattopadhyay, Sutapa 2018. Book Review on Harald Bauder’s Migration Borders Freedom. Interface: A Journal for and about Social Movements.  http://www.interfacejournal.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Interface-9-2-Reviews.pdf

2017

18. Mudu Pierpaolo and Chattopadhyay, Sutapa. 2017. ‘Migration, Squatting and Radical Autonomy’ Routledge – Space, Place, Politics Series [ISBN # 9781315673301]
19. Chattopadhyay, Sutapa (2017). Book Review on Nandini Sundar’s Interface: A Journal for and about Social Movements.
20. Chattopadhyay, Sutapa (2017). The Abuse of Nature and Adivasis in Bastar: A reflection of Nandini Sundar’s The Burning Forest: India’s war on Bastar. Capitalism Nature Socialism. Taylor and Francis Group. 

Radio/Podcast Contributions

Commentaries with CFXU – 93.3 FM [http://socialjusticeradio.onelouder.ca/][1]

2024

• Migration Podcast - conversation between Sutapa Chattopadhyay, Lorenzo Romito and Giulia Fioca, architects, artists, and activists from Rome, Italy's Stalker Collective, working with populations on the margins, and exploring the idea of planetary citizenship.
• Migration podcast - a presentation by Sutapa Chattopadhyay about the Politics of Dam Building: Indigeneity and Agency.
• SJR/Migration, Borders and Action Research - Solidarity for Palestine:  Jonathan Langdon, Sutapa Chattopadhyay and Sheena Cameron join a discussion with Linda Darwish, Chad Brazier, Natty Abdou, and Najlaa Alzaanin about the ongoing violence occurring in Gaza and local initiatives for solidarity with Palestine.
• Migration Podcast - talk by Sutapa Chattopadhyay entitled: Carcerality, Counter Carcerality and Migrant Justice, given at the StFX University Feminist Research Hive and a reflective discussion

2023

• featuring Development Studies students, Peter Gosby and Makenna Mestinsek, who share reflective essays from their Theories of Development course, taught by Dr. Sutapa Chattopadhyay
• Migration, Borders, Action Research – Interview with Jack Beaton, Syrian Antigonish Families Embrace with Student co-worker of the project – Marin McBeath
• Migration podcast: an interview with Dr. Sutapa Chattopadhyay about her Migration, Borders and Action Research Project. This episode is produced by Marin McBeath.

2022

• Migration, Borders, Action Research – Interview with Sutapa Chattopadhyay, Migration research and methodology by Student co-worker of the project – Sheena Cameron and Marin McBeath
• Migration, Borders, Action Research – Panel Discussion II & I with El Jones, Linda Darwish, Jack Beaton (SAFE, Antigonish), Stacey Gomez (NOII), Krista Johnson, Sutapa Chattopadhyay as panelists and Ann Braithwaite as discussant & moderator. Organized by Sutapa Chattopadhyay and student co-worker Marin McBeath.
• Migration, Borders, Action Research – Introduction by Sutapa Chattopadhyay and student co-worker Marin McBeath

Invited Talks, Conversations & Presentations

2024

1. Speaker: Far Right Panel, St. Francis Xavier University, Nova Scotia, Canada.
2. Speaker: Migrant carcerality and Frontex, Hive for Feminist Research, St. Francis Xavier University, Nova Scotia, Canada.
3. Speaker: Researching social movements and communities in struggle – one day conference celebrating the Handbook of Research Methods and Applications for Social Movements. Maynooth, Ireland.
4. Panelist: Academic Progression after your PhD, University of Liverpool, UK.
5. Speaker: Student encampment : Settler Colonial Situation – Gaza and Canada. University of Liverpool, UK.
6. Speaker: Handbook of social movement research methods: global symposium. speaker series with authors from the Handbook on Qualitative Methods in Social Movements. Online
7. Speaker: Pluriversario: Métodos de Investigación sobre, con y desde los movimientos sociales speaker series on the Handbook on Qualitative Methods in Social Movements organized by with Latin American authors collective, Online
8. Speaker: Book event on Politics of Development and Social Movements. University of Regina, Canada.
9. Speaker: Book event on The Handbook of Social Movements Research. St. Francis Xavier University, Canada.

2023

1. Speaker: Carceral versus Counter-Carceral Spaces. Hope away from Home: A World where refugees are always included. St Mary’s University, Canada
2. Speaker : Carcerality and counter carcerality – a case study of Frontex (Border-Industrial Complex, European Union), Hive for Feminist Research, St. Francis Xavier University, Canada.

2022

1. Speaker : Politics of Dam building. Brian Mulroney Institute of Government, St. Francis Xavier University, Canada.
2. Dialogue with Simone de Beauvoir Institute: Critical feminist methodologies on travel, migration and mobility justice, Concordia University, Canada
3. Speaker & organizer: Migration Panel with scholars and activist groups with Atlantic Canada, St. Francis Xavier University, Canada.

2020

1. Speaker: Borders, Migration and Critical Political theory. CAPED, Collectif de recherche Action Politique et Démocratie, Montréal, Canada
2. Speaker: Migration, Borders, Action Research. St. Mary’s University, Canada 

Other Research Contributions

1. 2017 – ongoing: Editor (Transnational Movements) and Reviewer. Transnational group. Interface: A Journal for and about Social Movements.
2. 2017 – ongoing: Advisory Board Member and Reviewer. ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies.

Research Funding History (5 Years)

1. 2023-2024: Partnership Engage Grant SSHRC. To the frontiers of Maya women’s food initiatives in Belize. 23,475 CAD. Extended till 2026.
2. 2021-2023: Insight Development Grant SSHRC. From precarity to autonomy: SoGIE South Asian Migrants in Rome, Italy. 72,763 CAD. Extended till April 2025.
3. 2019-2021. Institutional Grant SSHRC.  Migrant Lives in Waiting, Borders and Action Research. 7000CAD.

Most Significant Contributions

2024

Handbook on Qualitative Methods in Social Movements. Edward Elgar. This work has brought forth known scholars, novice scholars, scholar activists and activists to converse on a variety of methods that can used to do social justice and social movements research from below.

2022

Politics of Development and Forced Mobility: Gender, Indigeneity and Ecology. London: Palgrave Mobility Series. This work has developed from my reflections on concepts and insights that spanned from my dissertation research. Altogether the book has 6 chapters. It is an interdisciplinary project with special emphasis on Development and Feminist studies. 

2020 

‘Organizing amidst COVID-19’ with Interface: A Journal for and about Social Movements (published April-May 2020). This work was a collaboration with Laurence Cox and Lesley Wood. We received 38 papers, more than 50 authors, and from every continent. There was an equal representation of scholarly works from Global South and Global North. The research generated showed the importance of collaborative autonomous alliances that provided food, medical care, housing during the pandemic to the most vulnerable populations. The contributions have presented the significance of grassroots movements at times of crisis. Interface is an interdisciplinary journal that publishes research on social movements as alternative forms of development based on people’s participation, community organization and collaborations of marginalized people. 

2016

Migration, Squatting and Radical Autonomy: This is a co-edited book with Pierpaolo Mudu. This book most significantly contributed to the squatting and migration connection drawing articles from close to 30 authors, 23 chapters and 4 sections. It is an interdisciplinary and intersectional intervention that is widely used by academic and activist people. The book has been widely cited and sold more than couple hundred copies.