Meet FDC’s Board

Dr. Roja Singh is a distinguished scholar, educator, and advocate for Dalit and gender justice whose work bridges academia and social engagement. She serves as Associate Professor of Sociology and Anthropology at St. John Fisher University in Rochester, New York, where her teaching and research center on caste, gender, and transnational social movements. Dr. Singh is the author of Spotted Goddesses: Dalit Women’s Agency Narratives on Caste and Gender Violence (2018), a groundbreaking study amplifying the voices of Dalit women in India. Beyond her academic work, she founded the Dalit Solidarity Forum in the USA and leads initiatives fostering dialogue and empowerment among marginalized communities. Through her scholarship and public engagement, Dr. Singh has become a leading voice in advancing intersectional understandings of social justice and dignity across caste and gender lines.

Dr. Balmurli Natrajan is a leading anthropologist whose work explores the intersections of caste, culture, and political economy in contemporary India. A professor at William Paterson University in New Jersey, his research spans themes of development, nationalism, and the cultural politics of inequality. He is the author of The Culturalization of Caste in India: Identity and Inequality in a Multicultural Age (2011), a seminal work that rethinks caste beyond traditional frameworks of hierarchy to examine its reproduction through everyday cultural practices. Deeply engaged in issues of social justice and public scholarship, Prof. Natrajan’s writings and collaborations have shaped critical debates on caste, language, and democracy in South Asia and its diaspora.

Dr. Biju Mathew is a scholar, writer, and organizer whose work spans labor rights, migration, and transnational politics. Based in New York, he teaches at Rider University, where his research examines the intersections of neoliberalism, diaspora, and Hindu nationalism. He is the author of Taxi! Cabs and Capitalism in New York City (2005), a landmark ethnography of immigrant labor organizing that traces the political economy of South Asian taxi drivers in the city. Beyond academia, Dr. Mathew is a co-founder of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance and a long-standing advocate for workers’ and minority rights. Through his scholarship and public engagement, he has become an influential voice linking critical theory with movements for economic and social justice.