Dr Leena Pujari is a feminist sociologist and researcher. She heads the Department of Sociology, K C College, Mumbai and the PG Program in Liberal Studies at HSNC University, Mumbai. Her research interests include Development Studies, Sociology of tribes and Gender Studies in particular issues of feminist pedagogy, feminist resistance and feminist jurisprudence. She has chapters in edited volumes published by Routledge and Taylor and Francis and articles in national and international journals including Sage and EPW. She is on the Advisory Group of a transnational research project of the University of Westminster UK on ‘Decolonizing Sexual and Gender Based Violence in Higher Education: Innovations in Theory, Policy and Practice’. As member of the Board of Studies in Sociology of University of Mumbai during 2012-2022, she has contributed extensively to curriculum design and development especially in the field of Feminist Sociology and in the domain of law and justice. She has been invited for Consultations by UNICEF and UNFPA and has delivered lectures across universities and colleges in India.

As Convener of the Gender Cell of her college, she has been instrumental in providing a gender enabling and emancipatory space on campus. Among her several meaningful initiatives include setting up a Legal Cell (2017-2019) a first of its kind initiative for the undergraduate students in Mumbai, to provide free legal counselling to students and staff members on issues of domestic violence and sexual harassment and a course on Gender Studies that aims at raising a critical feminist perspective and initiating conversations around gender and sexuality on campus. She is an avid researcher and has researched on tribal women in Odisha, child rights in Mumbai and New Zealand, and led a team of researchers’ on a UNFPA funded collaborative research project with Population First on major media houses in Mumbai and their gender sensitive components.