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Reena Kukreja
Associate Professor
PhD (Cultural Studies), Queen鈥檚 University
Mackintosh-Corry Hall, A403
成人大片 University
Global Development Studies
Curriculum Vitae (PDF 222 KB)
Website:
My current research focusses on low class, racialized migrant men working in immigrant-niche sectors in Southern Europe. In the project titled, Undocumented South Asian Male Migrants in Greece: Understanding Masculinity, Love, and Work in Troubled Times, funded by SSHRC Insight Development Grant, I undertake a novel theorization on how culturally-specific norms of 鈥渇ailed鈥 masculinity, precipitated by neoliberal reforms, propel migration trajectories for low-class racialized men. I argue this with a case study of undocumented male migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and India who are employed in immigrant-niche sectors of agriculture and urban informal economy in Greece. Along a similar trajectory, I have begun studying how anti-immigrant discourses, far right populism, racism, and regimes of restrictive migration governance combine to determine gendered experiences of racialized lower-class migrant workers in host countries. As a PI, and working with six other colleagues, I study the flash points that trigger racial oppression from host communities against racialized migrant workers working in agriculture, gig economy or in the informal sector in Greece, Italy, and Spain.
My second project with racialized migrant male workers is a collaborative participatory action research project of Photovoice. 鈥淭his is Evidence: Re-presenting South Asian Migrant Men in Greece (SSHRC Connection Grant). I collaborated with groups of South Asian migrant men in Greece who used their cell phones to take photographs, record videos, and narrate their stories. The result was a multi-media exhibition and a digital archive (www.thisisevidence.com). The installation with a reconstructed plastic shack migrant housing, photographs, video shorts, ambient audio, and maps has been held in Greece, Canada, and Belgium.
My ongoing research in India examines the role of religion, caste, and political economy in shaping relational male identities and masculinity among lower classes of rural Indian men in contemporary North India. Focussing on the same region, it analyses the crisis of masculinities faced by lower classes of rural Indian men from the early 1990s when India embarked on neoliberal reforms. I undertake a study of the dominant Hindu Jat caste, the religious minority of the Meo, and the Dalits (formerly untouchables) to understand how male privilege and masculine norms are dislocated by market-led growth policies.
My doctoral work, Dispossession of Matrimonial Choice in Contemporary India: Examining the Link Between Cross-region Marriages, Neoliberal Capitalism, and New Forms of Gender Subordination focussed on marriage migration in rural North India. My research makes theoretical and empirical contributions in feminist political economy and migration studies by foregrounding dispossession in the most intimate of human relations 鈥 marriage. My monograph, Why Would I Be Married Here is based on this research.
I welcome graduate students interested in topics related to migration, masculinity, India, and gender in the Global South. I also welcome students in broad topics of interest related to caste, marriage-migration, and collaborative visual research methods.
Cross appointed to the Department of Gender Studies and affiliated with Cultural Studies
2022 QROF (Queen's Research Opportunities Fund) Catalyst Grant, $24,892. "Discourses of Hate and Prejudice Against Racialized Labouring Bodies of Migrant Agricultural Workers: A Cross-country Study in South Europe".
2020 SSHRC (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada) Insight Development Grant, $53,529. Undocumented South Asian Male Migrants in Greece: Understanding Masculinity, Love, and Work in Troubled Times.
2020 SSHRC (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada) Connections Grant, $44,384. 鈥淭his Is Evidence鈥: Photovoice by Undocumented South Asian Male Migrants In Greece.鈥
This is Evidence: Re-presenting Undocumented South Asian Migrant Men in Greece
A multi-media installation and digital archive (co-creation with undocumented South Asian migrant workers in Greece). Exhibitions held in Greece, Canada, and Belgium.
Books
Monograph: Partial Truths, Negotiated Existences: Examining Dispossession of Matrimonial Choice in Cross-Region Marriages in India (Cornell University Press, 2022; Indian imprint: Zubaan Books, 2023).
Edited volume: South Asians in Southern Europe: Exploring Labour, Identity and Desire (Palgrave MacMillan, expected date of publication early 2025).
Publications:
2023 Kukreja, R. 鈥淚ntroduction: Everyday Bordering Regimes and Transitioning Masculinities of Racialized Migrant Men Case Study of the EU,鈥 in SI: Bordering Regimes and Transitioning Masculinities of Racialized Migrant Men (guest editor Kukreja, R). NORMA: International Journal of Masculinity Studies 18(4): 243-260.
2023 Kukreja, R. 鈥淢asculine Borders as Alienation of Racialized, Undocumented South Asian Migrant Workers in Greece.鈥 NORMA: International Journal of Masculinity Studies 18(4): 293-308.
2022 Kukreja, R. 鈥淜abaddi in Greece: Using Indigenous Sport as Masculine Resistance Against Migrant Exclusion in Greece.鈥 The Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 49(5): 1173-1190.
2021 Kukreja, R. 鈥淐OVID-19, Racial Capitalism and Undocumented Bangladeshi Agricultural Workers in Manolada, Greece.鈥 Two Homelands.
2021 Kukreja, R. 鈥淩ecouping Masculinity: Understanding the Links Between Macho Masculinity and Self-Exploitation Among Undocumented South Asian Male Migrants in Greece.鈥 Geoforum. 122: 164 - 173
2021 Kukreja, R. 鈥淐olorism as Marriage Capital: Cross-Region Marriage-Migration in India and Dark-Skinned Migrant Brides.鈥 Gender & Society 35(1):85鈥109.
2020 Kukreja, Reena. 鈥.鈥 Men and Masculinities.
2019 Kukreja, Reena. 2018. 鈥.鈥 Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies.
2018 Kukreja, Reena. 鈥.鈥 Journal of Inter Cultural Studies, 39(4): 382-398
2017 Kukreja, Reena. 鈥,鈥 Modern Asian Studies, 52(2): 492-531.
Book Chapters
2023 Kukreja, R. 鈥淢asculine Anxieties of Undocumented South Asian Male Agricultural Workers in Greece: Productive Use of Bordering Regimes and Potential Emasculation by Racial Capitalism鈥 in (ed. Garth Stahl and Yang Zhao) Migratory Men: Place, Transnationalism and Masculinities, London: Routledge
2017 Kukreja, R. 鈥淎n unwanted weed: children of cross-region unions confront intergenerational stigma of caste, ethnicity, and religion.鈥 In (ed. Erica Chito Childs) The Boundaries of Mixedness: A Global Perspective, New York: Routledge.
Special Issue Guest Editorship
2023 Kukreja, R. Bordering Regimes and Transitioning Masculinities of Racialized Migrant Men. Special Issue in NORMA: International Journal of Masculinity Studies, 18(4), edited by Reena Kukreja (SI with 7 articles and an introduction)
Kukreja, R., Gallo, E., and Ingvars, A. Working title, Interrogating Bordering in Qualitative Research: Self-Identified Female Scholars Working on Migrant Men and Masculinities in Qualitative Research. Anticipated publication date: mid 2025.
Encyclopedia Entry
2020 Kukreja, R. 鈥淢eo Muslim, Mev, Mewati Muslim.鈥 Database of Religious History. Vancouver, BC: University of British Columbia.
Book Reviews
2020 Kukreja, R. Gender, Power and Identity: Essays on Masculinities in Rural North India by Prem Chowdhry, Men and Masculinities, 25(2): 350-351.
DOCUMENTARY FILMS (DIRECTION, SCRIPT AND EDITING)
2013 Tied in a Knot: Narratives from Bride Seeking Regions of India 58 min. / India
Through the voices of migrating brides, the documentary examines an emergent trend of marriage migration in India and the resultant changing gender and caste relations.
Screenings with panel discussion
2013 SNID (Society for National & International Development), Department of Film & Media and Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Queen鈥檚 University, Kingston, Canada. (October)
2013 Education Committee, Greater Toronto Workers' Assembly (GTWA) and Centre for Feminist Research (CFR) York University, Toronto, Canada. (September)
2013 Festival of India, Ottawa, Canada (August)
2013 Ideas Left Outside Conference, Kingston, Canada (August)
2013 Gender and Development Module, South Asia and Patriarchy Course, ANU College of Asia and the Pacific, The Australian National University, Australia. (May)
2013 IGNOU-SOITS Seminar Series, Indira Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi, India
2013 Gender Studies Program, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India (March)
2013 Panjab University, Chandigarh, India (March)
2013 Action Aid International, India Office, New Delhi, India (March)
2013 Delhi University (Dayal Singh College), New Delhi, India (1 March)
2013 Premiere of the documentary at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, India. (February)
2009 Delhi Bound For Work 58 min. / India & Canada
A collaborative film with migrant female domestic workers from rural Eastern India that describes the complex nature of their migration, marginalization from development process, and exploitation by placement agencies and employers.
Festival Screenings and Awards
2011 Winner Best Documentary Film 鈥 Dhan International Development Documentary Film Festival, India
2010 Winner Best Documentary Film 鈥 Jeevika Asia Livelihood Film Festival 2010, India
2011 Reframe Peterborough International Film Festival, Canada
2010 Economic Freedom Network Asia Conference 2010, Jakarta, Indonesia
2010 Tathya 2 鈥 Short and Documentary Film Festival, India
2010 4th Tunis International Film Festival (FIFT- Festival International du Film du Tunis), Tunisia
2010 4th International Anthropology Film Festival, Canada
2010 5th Women鈥檚 International Film Festival, USA, 2010
2009 Becoming Independent 24 min. / Canada
The film chronicles the lives of three young adults with developmental disabilities from Kingston as they negotiate everyday living, work and love whilst confronting barriers that are a result of the stigma attached to developmental disabilities.
2004 From Work To School 20 min / India
The film examines child labour in the carpet weaving industry and the dynamics of involving rural communities in eliminating child labour.
2003 Against All Odds / 40 min. Changing Mindsets / 22 min. No Looking Back / 12 min.
Produced for the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), Asia Pacific Region, these three films document the processes set into motion by the UNDP鈥檚 South Asia Poverty Alleviation Programme (SAPAP) in poor rural communities in South Asia. The three films, aimed at different target audiences and distribution channels, capture the different contours of the programme in six South Asian countries.
2000 Seeds of Burden 25 min. / India
The film examines the exploitative use of young girls as farm labour in 鈥榗otton-seed鈥 production for transnational corporations in rural South India.
Festival Screenings and Awards
2004 International Human Rights Festival, Kiev, Ukraine, 2004. Showcase documentary on girl-child labour.
2003 Human Rights Theme Selection, India International Film Festival, New Delhi
1999 Little Steps, A Giant Leap 27 min. / India
The film examines how street children work in unsafe work environments in New Delhi, India with no access to health-care, shelter or education.
1998 Childhood Regained 28 min. / India
A documentary examining child labour in the carpet industry of Mirzapur in India and the dynamics that force children into work.
1998 Naka, Naka, DuPont Naka 24 min. / India
Documents the agitation of people in Goa, India to successfully force DuPont, the American corporate giant, to give up setting a nylon production plant there.
1997 Mountain Hymns 27 min. / India
The documentary examines how village communities in the mountainous province of Himachal Pradesh, India have evolved an elaborate system of rituals and cultural practices to manage their natural resources, nurture their environment and ensure its sustainability.
1996 Bridging Distance 27 min. / Canada
The film draws parallels between the experience of First Nations in Canada and Indigenous communities in Central and South America on human rights, environment, and culture. It highlights the initiatives taken by them to end their political and cultural isolation by forging links at a global level with similarly affected communities.
1995 Making Connections 27 min. / Canada
The film explores the history of the labour movement in South-eastern Ontario, Canada from the turn of the 20th century pose questions about its future directions.
1994 Sand in My Shoes 54 min. / Canada
The film, funded by the Human Rights Office of Queen鈥檚 University, investigates the subtle, everyday acts of racism experienced by students, faculty and staff belonging to Visible Minorities at Queens University. It also explores the racism inherent in the way the curriculum is structured.
1994 Raising Voices 27 min. / India
A sequel to 鈥淲hose River鈥, it documents the initiatives taken by village communities, especially women, living in the Angul-Talcher industrial belt of Orissa, India to protect their land and water sources from being irreversibly polluted.
1993 Whose River Is It Anyway? 28 min. / India
The film highlights the impact of industrialization on rural communities living in the Angul-Talcher industrial belt of Orissa, India as they lose their livelihoods, suffer from health hazards, and are displaced from their land.
1993 Tear It Up 28 min. / Canada
The film, made just after the NAFTA agreement was signed, focuses on the implications for the Canadian labour force by the relocation of the big industries to Mexico.
1991 Money in My Pocket 28 min. / India
Highlights how a group of women from a marginalised Indigenous community in rural Rajasthan resist exploitation by moneylenders and upper castes in their region.
1988 We Will Build This Wall 28 min. / India
The film follows a group of women construction workers in North India as they fight to overcome cultural taboos and patriarchal restrictions preventing them from being trained as masons.