Dr. Harleen Kaur – Lead Editor studies the subjectivity formation of the US Sikh Punjabi diaspora through empire, memory, and advocacy for social and political inclusion. Her current project – Martialing Race – traces the co-optation of Sikh embodied sovereignty and community negotiations for safety and recognition into empire- and state-driven tactics of increased surveillance, militarization, and policing. Her passion project is utilizing Sikhi’s radical notion of Oneness as a driver for higher community consciousness rooted in an intersectional, anti-oppression framework. Dr. Kaur is a Teaching Assistant Professor of Sociology at Arizona State University and received her PhD in sociology from University of California, Los Angeles.
dr. prabhdeep singh kehal – Lead Editor investigates how racism, cisheterosexism, and colonialism are experienced in cultural organizations, asking what constitutes anti-racist, anti-colonial, and anti-casteist strategies of cultural inclusion in two ongoing projects. In a book project, they explore how cultural change and demographic inclusion unfold in debates of junior, tenure-track professors’ hireability. In their ongoing project, they conduct oral histories with LGBTQIA+ Sikhs to explore how Sikhs feel included in sangat and nation as they navigate experiences of cisheterosexism and settler colonialism through Sikhi. dr. kehal is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, received their PhD in sociology from Brown University, and uses they/them pronouns.
Diditi Mitra is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Brookdale Community College. Her research focuses on race and immigration. In addition to publishing peer-reviewed articles, she has authored “Punjabi Immigrant Mobility in the United States: Adaptation through Race and Class”, and co-edited “Race and the Lifecourse: Readings from the Intersection of Race, Ethnicity, and Age”. Diditi is also a Kathak dancer and an aspiring poet.
Jugdep S. Chima is an Associate Professor of Political Science & International Studies at Hiram College (Ohio, USA). His research focuses on issues of ethnic nationalism, particularly in South Asia and India. He is the author of “The Sikh Separatist Insurgency in India: Political Leadership and Ethnonationalist Movements”, and editor of “Ethnic Subnationalist Insurgencies in South Asia: Identities, Interests, and Challenges to State Authority”. He has also served as an expert consultant for various government agencies specifically on refugee and humanitarian affairs.
Shruti Devgan is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Bowdoin College. Her recent scholarship examines diasporic, intergenerational and digitally mediated memories of the anti-Sikh violence of 1984 in India. She is especially interested in bridging the gap between academia and wider audiences and has written for platforms such as Contexts, American Sociological Association’s journal for general readers and NYU’s web journal, The Revealer.
Elizabeth Weigler is an industry researcher and holds a PhD in Cultural Anthropology from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her scholarship and publications focus on the public historical projects of Sikhs living in the United Kingdom to understand identity formation and the role of the individual within processes of collective memory and civic engagement. She is dedicated to community-based knowledge and self-representation, working with grassroots outreach endeavors in Sikh and Punjabi heritage and broader crowd-sourced platforms.
Dr Jagbir Jhutti-Johal is a Reader in Sikh Studies in the Department of Theology and Religion, University of Birmingham, UK. Her research focuses on gender, Sikh identity in the diasporic community, representation within gurdwaras, racialization and mistaken identity and other contested issues that confront the Sikh community. She also works on public policy, social and political engagement issues as they affect and are affected by the British Sikh community. Recent co-authored publication with Hardeep Singh Racialisation, Islamophobia and Mistaken Identity: The Sikh Experience. She is very involved in voluntary work within the community, especially around race hate crime, gender and children issues.
Sonia Dhami – Managing Editor is the President and CEO of “Art & Tolerance” and also serves as a trustee of the Sikh Foundation. She is the co-editor of “Sikh Art from the Kapany Collection” a definitive volume on Sikh Art co-published with the Smithsonian Institution. She has also edited a richly illustrated volume, “Games We Play”. Her work with Sikh institutions demonstrates the confluence of art, history, religion, and community. She graduated from St. Bede’s College Shimla and earned her Master’s in Business Administration from Punjab Agricultural University Ludhiana.
