Professor Sundari Anitha (she/her)
Department of Sociological Studies
Chair in Sociological Studies
Full contact details
Department of Sociological Studies
The Wave
2 Whitham Road
Sheffield
S10 2AH
- Profile
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Anitha joined the Department of Sociological Studies in 2024, having previously worked at the University of Lincoln, the University of Leeds and the University of Central Lancashire.
Anitha’s research focuses on two areas across the disciplines of Sociology, Social Policy and Criminology: (i) the problem of violence against women and girls (VAWG) at the intersection of gender, race, border and migration in diverse contexts including the UK, US and India; domestic violence and abuse, including particular manifestations such as dowry-related abuse, forced marriage, transnational forms of violence such as abandonment of wives and domestic servitude; sexual violence including everyday forms of sexual harassment in online and offline spaces; gender-based violence in university communities; and (ii) the intersection of gender, race and ethnicity in employment relations; agency, solidarity and industrial action by migrant workers; and trade union representation of migrant workers. Anitha’s research draws upon qualitative research methods, including life history methods.
Anitha has been the Principal Investigator and Co-Investigator on a range of research projects and received funding from the The Leverhulme Trust, the Economic and Social Research Council, the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the Nuffield Foundation and the British Academy.
Anitha served as Associate Editor of Women’s Studies International Forum (2022-23) and is a member of the Editorial Board of British Journal of Criminology and Women’s Studies International Forum.
Anitha was a member of the REF2021 Sociology sub-panel.
She is a member of the ESRC peer review college.
- Research interests
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Anitha’s research spans the following areas:
- Violence against women and girls at the intersection of gender, race, border and migration
- Domestic violence
- Sexual violence
- Gender-based violence in university communities
- Intersection of gender, race and ethnicity in employment relations
- Trade union representation of migrant workers
- Industrial action
- Forced labour and domestic servitude
- South Asian diaspora
- Qualitative and narrative methods
- Feminist and participatory research methodologies
- Publications
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Books
- Striking Women Struggles and Strategies of South Asian Women Workers from Grunwick to Gate Gourmet.
Edited books
- Gender based violence in university communities: Policy, prevention and educational initiatives. Bristol: Policy Press.
- Forced Marriage: Introducing a social justice and human rights perspective. London: Zed Books.
Journal articles
- The politics of naming and construction: university policies on gender-based violence in the UK. Gender and Education, 36(1), 86-103.
- Gender violence or tradition?: media coverage of child/forced marriage in US newspapers. Feminist Media Studies, 24(1), 34-50.
- Citizenisation in the aftermath of domestic violence: the role of family, community and social networks. Families, Relationships and Societies, 12(3), 374-391.
- The nature of domestic violence experienced by Black and minoritised women and specialist service provision during the COVID-19 pandemic: practitioner perspectives in England and Wales. Journal of Gender-Based Violence, 7(2), 252-270.
- Upskirting: A Systematic Literature Review. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 24(3), 2003-2018.
- Domestic violence during the pandemic: ‘By and for’ frontline practitioners’ mediation of practice and policies to support racially minoritised women. Organization, 29(3), 460-477.
- Hierarchies of Masculinity and Lad Culture on Campus: “Bad Guys”, “Good Guys”, and Complicit Men. Men and Masculinities, 25(5), 698-720.
- Understanding forced marriage protection orders in the UK. Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law, 43(4), 371-392.
- A Balancing Act: Agency and Constraints in University Students’ Understanding of and Responses to Sexual Violence in the Night-Time Economy. Violence Against Women, 27(11), 2043-2065.
- Feminist responses to sexual harassment in academia: voice, solidarity and resistance through online activism. Journal of Gender-Based Violence, 4(1), 9-23.
- Conceptualising the Agency of Migrant Women Workers: Resilience, Reworking and Resistance. Work, Employment and Society, 34(5), 883-899.
- ‘Abandoned Women’: Transnational Marriages and Gendered Legal Citizens. Australian Feminist Studies, 34(100), 165-181.
- South Asian feminisms in Britain. Economic and Political Weekly, 54(17).
- Understanding Economic Abuse Through an Intersectional Lens: Financial Abuse, Control, and Exploitation of Women’s Productive and Reproductive Labor. Violence Against Women, 25(15), 1854-1877.
- Making Politics Visible: Discourses on Gender and Race in the Problematisation of Sex-Selective Abortion. Feminist Review, 120(1), 1-19.
- Changing nature and emerging patterns of domestic violence in global contexts: Dowry abuse and the transnational abandonment of wives in India. Women's Studies International Forum, 69, 67-75.
- Gender, Migration, and Exclusionary Citizenship Regimes: Conceptualizing Transnational Abandonment of Wives as a Form of Violence Against Women. Violence Against Women, 24(7), 747-774.
- Emerging issues for international family law Part 1: Transnational marriage abandonment as a form of domestic violence. Family Law, 46(10), 1247-1252.
- EMERGING ISSUES IN INTERNATIONAL FAMILY LAW – PART 2 Possibilities and challenges to providing effective legal remedies in cases of transnational marriage abandonment. Family Law, 46(11), 1352-1356.
- Emerging issues for international family law - Part 3: Transnational marriage abandonment and the dowry question. Family law, 46(12), 1443-1449.
- A Moral Panic? The Problematization of Forced Marriage in British Newspapers. Violence Against Women, 21(9), 1123-1144.
- Striking Women—Striking Out. Feminist Review, 108(1), 61-70.
- Striking Narratives: class, gender and ethnicity in the ‘Great Grunwick Strike’, London, UK, 1976–1978. Women's History Review, 23(4), 595-619.
- Striking similarities: representing South Asian women's industrial action in Britain. Gender, Place & Culture, 19(2), 133-152.
- Striking lives: Multiple narratives of South Asian women’s employment, identity and protest in the UK. Ethnicities, 12(6), 754-775.
- Legislating Gender Inequalities. Violence Against Women, 17(10), 1260-1285.
- Striking issues: from labour process to industrial dispute at Grunwick and Gate Gourmet. Industrial Relations Journal, 41(5), 408-428.
- No Recourse, No Support: State Policy and Practice towards South Asian Women Facing Domestic Violence in the UK. British Journal of Social Work, 40(2), 462-479.
- The illusion of protection? An analysis of forced marriage legislation and policy in the UK. Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law, 31(3), 257-269.
- Coercion, Consent and the Forced Marriage Debate in the UK. Feminist Legal Studies, 17(2), 165-184.
- The social and institutional context of throughcare and aftercare services for prison drug service clients, with a focus on Black and minority ethnic prisoners. Drugs and Alcohol Today, 8(4), 14-25.
- Neither safety nor justice: the UK government response to domestic violence against immigrant women. Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law, 30(3), 189-202.
- Stop and search or stop and engage?: Factors influencing community—police engagement around drug supply issues. Drugs and Alcohol Today, 7(3), 37-46.
- Im/mobility as a form of gender-based violence – The case of transnationally abandoned wives in India. Journal of Gender-Based Violence.
- From Grunwick to Gate Gourmet: South Asian Women’s Industrial Activism and the Role of Trade Unions. Revue française de civilisation britannique, 23(1).
Chapters
- Transnational marriage abandonment: A new form of domestic violence and abuse in transnational spaces In Devaney J, Bradbury-Jones C, Macey RJ, Øverlien C & Holt S (Ed.), The Routledge Handbook on Domestic Violence and Abuse Oxford: Routledge.
- From #MeToo to #HimToo in Academia In Lewis R & Marine S (Ed.), Collaborating for Change (pp. 47-72). Oxford: Oxford University PressNew York.
- Explorations on the nature of resistance: Challenging gender based violence in the academy In Crimmins G (Ed.), Strategies for Resisting Sexism in the Academy Higher Education, Gender and Intersectionality (pp. 75-94). Springer
- Understanding student responses to gender-based violence on campus: negotiation, reinscription and resistance In Anitha S & Lewis R (Ed.), Gender based violence in university communities: Policy, prevention and educational interventions (pp. 189-210). Bristol: Policy Press.
- Conclusion: Setting the agenda for challenging GBV in universities In Anitha S & Lewis R (Ed.), Gender based violence in university communities: Policy, prevention and educational interventions (pp. 229-240). Bristol: Policy Press.
- Introduction: Some reflections in these promising and challenging times In Anitha S & Lewis R (Ed.), Gender based violence in university communities: Policy, prevention and educational interventions (pp. 1-20). Bristol: Policy Press.
Reports
- Checklist of Dos and Don’ts: University policies on GBV
- Policies on gender-based violence in UK universities: Understanding current practice, mapping future directions
- Understanding protection and prevention responses to forced marriage in England and Wales
- Polish women’s experiences of domestic violence and abuse in the United Kingdom
- Eradicating sexual violence in tertiary education: A report from UCU’s sexual violence task group
- Domestic violence during the lockdown: the needs of Black and minoritised communities during the pandemic
- Disposable women: Abuse, violence and abandonment in transnational marriages
- Forgotten women: Domestic violence, poverty and South Asian women with no recourse to public funds
- Domestic violence and mental health: experiences of South Asian women in Manchester
- Striking Women Struggles and Strategies of South Asian Women Workers from Grunwick to Gate Gourmet.
- Research group
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Postgraduate supervision
Anitha has previously supervised and is currently supervising PhD students in the following areas: violence against women and girls including domestic abuse and sexual violence, and industrial action. Anitha welcomes enquiries and applications to study for research degrees in her areas of research interest.
- Grants
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Violence and Abuse in Romantic Relationships: Understanding the Experiences of Women and Girls in India (August 2023-July 2025), Principal Investigator
Funder: British Academy
Violence and Abuse in Romantic Relationships: Understanding the Experiences of Women and Girls in India (Jan 2024-December 2024), Principal Investigator
Funder: British Academy/The Leverhulme Trust
Tackling violence against racially minoritised women and girls (January 2023-June 2024), Co-Investigator with Prof Aisha Gill (PI), University of Bristol
Funder: Economic and Social Research Council
Forced Marriage: Enhancing protection and prevention responses (April 2020-May 2023), Principal Investigator with Prof Aisha Gill (Co-I), University of Roehampton
Funder: Nuffield Foundation
Transnational abandonment of South Asian women: a new form of violence against women (January 2013-March 2016), Principal Investigator with Prof. Anupama Roy (Co-I), Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi; Funder: British Academy
Striking Women: South Asian workers’ struggles in the UK labour market: From Grunwick to Gate Gourmet (June 2012-December 2013), Principal Investigator, with Prof Ruth Pearson (Co-I), University of Leeds Funder: AHRC
- Partnerships, engagement and impact
Anitha previously managed a Women’s Aid refuge and worked as a Case Worker for Asha Projects, a specialist refuge for survivors of domestic abuse. She is a trustee of three organisations - Asha Projects, ATLEU (Anti-trafficking and Labour Exploitation Unit) and Natcen (National Centre for Social Research). She serves as an expert advisor on labour disputes for the 2025 exhibition ‘Resistance’ curated by Steve McQueen, at Turner Contemporary, Margate. She has been active in advocacy and policy-making on violence against women, including forced marriage, for over 20 years.
Anitha’s research has also led to policy impact. Transnational marriage abandonment (TMA) occurs when abusive husbands residing in the West strand their marriage migrant wives in their home countries, depriving them of their residential and financial rights and preventing them from accessing domestic abuse services in the UK. Anitha’s research documented (and named) the problem of TMA for the first time in 2016, following which she worked with Southall Black Sisters to persuade the family justice system in England & Wales to recognise such abandonment as a form of domestic abuse in 2017. However, victims who were stranded abroad found that immigration officers were unwilling to act on this change and routinely prevented their re-entry to the UK. In a landmark ruling on 14 October 2022, Justice Lieven held that victims of TMA are unlawfully discriminated against as they are not allowed to avail reliefs available to victims who are in the UK on a spouse visa. Following this ruling, Anitha was part of a working group on TMA that advised civil servants on the policy change. Hundreds of victims of domestic abuse who have been stranded abroad by their British husbands will finally get justice through a new out of country settlement route into the UK which comes into force on 31 January 2024.
Following Anitha’s research on South Asian women’s participation in the Grunwick and Gate Gourmet industrial disputes in the UK, she worked with Prof Ruth Pearson to produce a variety of resources to convey the research findings to non-academic audiences. These include a website for schools (key stages 3, 4 and 5) and community organisations about migrant workers in the UK and the world which have received over 3.5 million visits since January 2014: Striking Women | ; and a two-part downloadable comic ‘Striking Lives’, depicting the life stories of two south Asian women workers in the UK: https://www.striking-women.org/sites/default/files/striking_women_for_download_opt.pdf .