Jaita Talukdar

Jaita Talukdar is an associate professor of sociology at Loyola University New Orleans. Talukdar’s scholarly interests are in social institutions of the body, beauty, and labor, particularly, the pivotal role materiality of the body— how one feeds, clothes, adorns and disciplines the body—has on an individual’s ability to secure status and recognition in society. If sociology offers an important insight that human experiences are deeply embedded in social structures and institutions, sociologists of the body enunciate it by showing that norms and beliefs become real only when we embody them. Drawing inspiration from theoretical schools of modernism, post-structuralism, and postcolonialism, Talukdar examines social forces that create distinctions between bodies that labor for others and bodies that are capable of generating capital (that bring social and economic returns). 

In the last decade and a half, she has published peer-reviewed, scholarly articles in social science journals and in invited edited volumes on institutions such as dieting, religious fasting, fitness, biohealth, and cooking and feeding others to show that gender and class privileges intersect to reward individuals who are believed to work for self-growth (capital) more than those who are believed to work for others (labor).

Her recent publication is a book called Beauty: Gendered Perspectives (forthcoming with Routledge; ISBN 9781032819006) that examines beauty as a social force that shapes bodies, identities, and everyday life. From hair and dress to thinness, cosmetic surgery, and online beauty culture, this volume traces the historical and social forces that have made particular forms of appearance desirable, necessary, and valuable.

She regularly teaches courses on gender, social class, body, beauty, health, and food at Loyola.

• Markets, Medicine, and Bodies

• Food, Gender, and Culture       

• Beauty and Society

• Gender Studies

• Global Change, Culture, and Development    

• Sociological Theories  

Dr. Talukdar has received her Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Cincinnati, Ohio; her M.A. from University of Calcutta, India; and her B.A. from Presidency College, Calcutta, India. She has previously served as interim chair in the department of sociology, and has also co-chaired the Women’s Studies minor program at Loyola University New Orleans. Her students call her Dr. T!