Bandana Purkayastha is Professor of Sociology and Asian & Asian American Studies. She served as Head, Sociology, at the University of Connecticut (UCONN) from 2011-2016 Leadership. Her current research interests focus on human rights/human security, migration and migrants, intersectionality, and violence. Her earlier research on ethnicity, racism, gender, violence and peace has been published in many countries.

Bandana Purkayastha was awarded the 2018 Sociologists for Women in Society’s Feminist Mentoring award. The mentoring award was established in 1990 to honor an SWS member who is an outstanding feminist mentor. In establishing the award, SWS recognized that feminist mentoring is an important and concrete way to encourage feminist scholarship.

In 2019 Professor Purkayastha was awarded The biennial Research Excellence Award. UCONN College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Research awards recognize national and international prominence in research. The recipients of Excellence in Research awards are honored for a research program that has gained national and international distinction and impact in their field of study. For more please see https://clas.uconn.edu/faculty-staff/excellence-awards/

Bandana Purkayastha is also a member of the International Sociological Association, Executive Committee. International Sociological Association is an organization of sociologists with members from 126 countries.  Bandana Purkayastha was elected to the 16 person executive committee which oversees the general operations of the organization along with the officers.