Ntasha Bhardwaj received her Ph.D. in Criminal Justice at the School of Criminal Justice at Rutgers University. Her work is multi-disciplinary drawing on perspectives from Criminology, Criminal Justice, Sociology, Psychology, Political Science and Law. As a researcher she explores the impact of gender and gender inequality on crime and fear of crime in South Asia. Her dissertation project, Exploring Pathways to Incarceration among Indian and Sri Lankan Women is a mixed methods study (using life event calendars and qualitative interviews) investigating the pre-prison lives and experiences of 180 women incarcerated in India and Sri Lanka. Ntasha’s research agenda is anchored in the goal to build on the limited yet growing criminal justice research in the South Asian context. She has received two awards from the Division on Women and Crime, American Society of Criminology for her dissertation research.

As a teacher, she has gained four years of experience at Rutgers University, teaching and developing these courses: Crime in Different Cultures, Criminology, Gender, Crime and Justice, and Ethical and Philosophical Foundations in Criminal Justice. Her research has been published in the Journal of Research on Crime and Delinquency and the European Journal of Criminology. She has presented her work at the American Society of Criminology Annual Meetings, XXXIV International Post Graduate Course on Victimology, Victim Assistance and Criminal Justice and at the St. Xavier’s Psychology Honors Seminar. She has worked with Vera Institute of Justice, National Council for Research on Women and the Rutgers Marriage Equality Project to conceptualize and conduct different research projects. Recently, she served as the UN Women Technical Consultant to the Ministry of Women and Child Development, during India’s G20 Presidency and UN Women Technical Consultant to the Government of Goa, building the state’s strategy on creating enabling ecosystems for safety.

Education

Ph.D. in Criminal Justice- Rutgers University, Newark (2022)
M.A. in Criminal Justice- Rutgers University, Newark (2014)
MSW in Criminology & Criminal Justice- Tata Institute of Social Sciences (2011)
B.A. in English Literature- St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai (2008)

Jody Miller is a Fellow of the American Society of Criminology (ASC); Co-Editor of the ASC’s flagship journal, Criminology; and 2017 ASC Vice President. She is Co-Director of the National Science Foundation-sponsored Racial Democracy, Crime and Justice Network (RDCJN) and coordinator of the RDCJN’s Research Experience for Undergraduates initiative. Miller’s research utilizes qualitative methods to investigate how inequalities of gender, race, sexuality and place shape participation in crime and risks for victimization, with concentrations in the United States and South Asia.

Her books include Getting Played: African American Girls, Urban Inequality, and Gendered Violence (NYU Press, 2008)—winner of the American Sociological Association’s Race, Class and Gender Section Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship Book Award (2010) and finalist for the C. Wright Mills Award (2009)—and One of the Guys: Girls, Gangs, and Gender (Oxford University Press, 2001). Dr. Miller has published dozens of articles and book chapters, including in Criminology, Gender & Society, Signs, Theoretical Criminology, and British Journal of Criminology. She is past recipient of the American Society of Criminology Mentor Award (2015), the Coramae Richey Mann Award from the ASC Division on People of Color and Crime (2009), the ASC Division on Women and Crime’s Distinguished Scholar Award (2010) and New Scholar Award (2001), and the ASC’s Ruth Shonle Cavan Young Scholar Award (2001).

Aanchal Modani is a doctoral candidate at the Silver School of Social Work, New York University. A native of India, she studies the impact of violence and marginalization on help-seeking behaviour, barriers and facilitators in access, community engagement and reintegration, and healthcare system organisation. Her dissertation focuses on utilising qualitative inquiry to explore the pathways of care and safety among women survivors of domestic violence in North India. She currently serves as a qualitative research consultant at The George Institute for Global Health, India, where she's working on a multi-country project called "Gender-responsive Research and Advocacy through CEDAW" (GRACE) in India, Indonesia, South Africa, and Kenya.

With a background in clinical psychology, Aanchal has previously worked as a Clinical Research Coordinator at the New York State Psychiatric Institute in the Molecular Imaging and Neuropathology Division, contributing to an NIMH grant investigating neuropsychological and biological markers of suicide and depression. Additionally, she was involved in a mental health needs assessment study of home-based female sex workers in rural India, further igniting her dedication to supporting women facing violence and discrimination, which often leads to adverse mental health outcomes.

Aanchal has published research in the Community Mental Health Journal and Handbook on Sex, Gender, and Health: Perspectives from South Asia. She has presented her work at the Sexual Violence Research Initiative, the Society for Social Work & Research, the Annual Reducing Inequality Network Event, and the American Psychological Association Convention. She has also received an NYU Urban Doctoral Fellowship and is a grantee of the NYC Reducing Inequality Network. She has also served as the editorial assistant of the Archives of Suicide Research (2017-2019). 

Education

M.A. in Clinical Psychology - Teachers College, Columbia University (2017)
M.A. in Psychology - The IIS University, Jaipur (2015)
B.A. in Applied Psychology - Gargi College, University of Delhi (2013)