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Sonja Thomas

Title

Associate Professor of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Department

Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Information

Address

8800 Mayflower Hill Waterville, Maine 04901-8853

Education

  • Ph.D., Rutgers University, 2011
  • B.A., University of Minnesota, 2001

Areas of Expertise

  • South Asian feminisms/South Asian diaspora
  • Transnational feminisms
  • Caste and race
  • Rural Montana
  • Tap dance

Personal Information

Sonja Thomas is an associate professor of women’s, gender, and sexuality studies at Colby College, where she teaches courses on South Asian feminisms, transnational feminisms, gender and human rights, feminist theory, and postcolonial and native feminisms. She is the author of Privileged Minorities: Syrian Christianity, Gender, and Minority Rights in Postcolonial India. The book examines the Syrian Christian community in Kerala, India—a dominant caste Christian community named “Syrian” because of the Syriac language inherent in its traditions. In this book, Sonja discusses caste, class, and Aryan racial privilege in India, intercaste/interfaith marriages, secular protections and article 30(1) of the Indian constitution, and issues of religious minority rights in postcolonial India. She has also written articles on education and religious minorities in India, brahmanical patriarchy, race and immigration in rural America, and Asian settler colonialism.

Her other research interest is tap dance history. She has written articles on tap history, intersectionality and black vernacular traditions, and blackface abroad (specifically in Asia). She teaches tap dance and black feminist thought in a course at Colby called Critical Race Feminisms and Tap Dance. Check out the video for the class here: Critical Race Feminisms and Tap Dance

Sonja is associate editor for South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies. She served as secretary for the National Women's Studies Association 2020-21.

She is currently researching and writing her second book project on Catholic missionary priests from India serving in rural Montana, North Dakota, and Wyoming. The project is tentatively titled Indians and Cowboys: Indian Missionary Priests in Rural America. She is also conducting research on the 1961 Babe Ruth World Series hosted in her hometown, Glendive, Montana.

Publications

  • Privileged Minorities: Syrian Christianity, Gender, and Minority Rights in Postcolonial India. Global South Asia series. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2018. Privileged Minorities
  • "The Ingredients of Casteism: Holy Week and Syrian Christian Food Practices in Kerala, India" in South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, (30 Jan 2022): 1-16. Casteism
  • "Syrian Christians and Dominant Caste Hindus" in Handbook of Hindu-Christian Relations. Michelle Voss Roberts and Chad Bauman, Eds, New York: Routledge, 2020.
  • "'Studying Up' in World Christianity: A Feminist Analysis of Caste and Settler Colonialism," Journal of World Christianity, 11, No. 2 (2021), pp. 195-209. Studying Up
  • "Black Soundwork, Knowledge Production, and the 'Debate' Over Tap Dance Origins" in Resonance: The Journal of Sound and Culture, , 1, no. 4, (2021): pp. 412–421.
  • "Studying race in the field of South Asian religions," Religion Compass, 15, no 4., (2021): pp 1-9. Studying Race
  • "Can Syrian Christians be Black? Racialized Discrimination in Global South Asia," ALA: A Kerala Studies Blog June 30th, 2019. Issue 10.
  • "The Women's Wall in Kerala, India and Brahmanical Patriarchy," Feminist Studies 45, No1 (2019): pp. 253-260. Women's Wall
  • "Cowboys and Indians: Indian Priests in Rural Montana." Women’s Studies Quarterly Special Issue: Asian Diaspora. Lili Shi and Yadira Perez Hazel, guest editors. Volume 47, Numbers 1 & 2, (Spring/Summer 2019): pp. 110-131. Cowboys and Indians
  • "'This is America' and the Global Erasure of Black Vernacular Traditions" ASAP/Journal: The Association for the Study of the Arts of the Present, Open-access platform, reviews. August 2018. This Is America
  • "Educated Feet: Tap Dancing and Embodied Feminist Pedagogies at a Small Liberal Arts College." Feminist Teacher, 28, no. 2-3. (Fall 2018). Educated Feet
  • "Education as Empowerment? Gender and the Human Right to Education in Postcolonial India" in Human Rights in Postcolonial India. V.G. Julie Rajan and Om Dwivedi, eds. New York: Routledge, 2016.
  • "The 'New' South Asian Feminisms." Journal of Commonwealth and Postcolonial Studies. 2 no. 2. (Fall 2014): 74-83.
  • "Gender, Macroeconomic Policy, and the Human Rights Approach to Social Protection." Coauthored with Dr. Radhika Balakrishnan. New Frontiers in Feminist Political Economy. Shirin M. Rai and Georgina Waylen, eds. New York: Routledge, 2014.
  • "The Tying of the Ceremonial Wedding Thread: A Feminist Analysis of 'Ritual' and 'Tradition' Among Syro-Malabar Catholics in India," Journal of Global Catholicism, 1, No. 1 (September 2016): 104-116. Ritual and Tradition

Media and Public Scholarship

Media Interviews