Garima Sarkar Successfully Defends Her Doctoral Dissertation

Garima Sarkar, PhD candidate in Political Science successfully defended her doctoral dissertation titled “ Barriers to Women in Politics: Candidate Selection and Informal Party Politics in India” on September 20, 2024. Garima’s dissertation was supervised by Dr. Netina Tan and investigates the inner workings of the two major political parties in India, i.e. the Indian National Congress (INC) and the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) that contribute to the lack of women in Indian national politics. Drawing on mixed-methods research involving empirical data analysis of original candidate data and semi-structured elite interviews, her dissertation finds that both candidate selection methods and informal party practices perpetuate gender disparities in political representation in India. By examining the opaque candidate selection processes through a gendered lens, she sheds light on the barriers women face for electoral candidacy in Indian national politics. She successfully defended her doctoral dissertation in the presence of her examining committee chaired by Dr. Ahmed Shafiqul Huque, Dr. Netina Tan (primary supervisor), Dr. Michelle Lyn. Dion (supervisory Committee member), Peter Graefe (supervisory Committee member), and Dr. Rashmi Singh (external examiner) from O.P. Jindal Global University, India.

Congratulations Garima, we wish you all success in your future endeavors!