Dr. Jegathesan is a cultural anthropologist with a research focus on gender, labor, minority politics, and development in the Global South. Her research has focused on the social and economic experiences of Tamil women tea plantation residents and workers in Sri Lanka, where she has conducted field research since 2005. She is currently researching the first women's trade union in Sri Lanka, the dynamics of transnational organizing across formal and informal employment sectors, and the changing development practices of local NGOs in postwar Sri Lanka. She holds a PhD in Cultural Anthropology from Columbia University and has received grants from the National Science Foundation, American Association for University Women, and American Institute for Sri Lankan Studies.

Courses

• Anthropology 3: Introduction to Social and Cultural Anthropology
• Anthropology 11A/12A: Human Rights and Humanitarinism (Culture and Ideas I)
• Anthropology 112: Anthropological Methods
• Anthropology 114: Senior Project
• Anthropology 170: Women, Gender, and Sexuality