Dr. Barbara Grossman-Thompson

Barbara Grossman-Thompson

Associate Professor of International Studies

Office – Liberal Arts 3 – 103B
Email – Barbara.Grossman-Thompson@csulb.edu

Dr. Barbara (Babs) Grossman-Thompson is a Southern California native, originally from San Diego, CA. She attended San Diego State University for her BA and MA in Women’s Studies. She finished her PhD in sociology at the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2015. As a comparative sociologist with a particular interest in the political economy of contemporary South Asia, her main areas of inquiry include the gendered organization of labor in South Asia and the implications of development in the Himalayan region, with an emphasis on Nepal. Her research focuses on the gendered implications of social change and economic development in Nepal and asks, how do Nepali women articulate and understand their identities as female wage-laborers in the context of globalization? In particular, her work considers the way in which her informants navigate conflicting discourses about women’s role in the public and private sphere as “public women.” Additionally her research concerns the political economy of migration and diaspora. The growing number of Nepali women migrating abroad for work poses numerous questions about the gendered nature of migration, migration policy and remittances. Dr. Grossman-Thompson’s research projects focus on migration as a process shaped by both local and global forces as well as historically dominant and emergent ways of thinking about gender and mobility. Dr. Grossman-Thompsons’s current research is supported by a grant from the British Academy and looks at the creation, dissemination and reception of “awareness raising” materials such as murals, flyers and posters in Nepal that focus on gender-based violence and gender equity. Dr. Grossman-Thompson’s work has been published in journals such as Feminist Theory, Signs, and Organization amongst others. 

Dr. Grossman-Thompson has mentored and travelled with student research assistants to Nepal through her participation in UROP, the McNair Scholars Program, BUILD and the University Honors Program. Dr. Grossman-Thompson is the current CSULB Faculty Advisor for the Fulbright U.S. Student Program, the Gilman Scholarship, and the Boren Scholarship Dr. Grossman-Thompson is proud to be part of the dynamic I/ST faculty and lives in Long Beach with her partner and two dogs Nari and Tika.