Dr. Prema Kurien is Professor of Sociology at Syracuse University. She is a scholar of international migration, race, ethnicity, and religion. She adopts a transnational approach in her work and has also done research in India, to show how a variety of global factors, including developments in the country of origin, play a profound role in shaping community structures, cultures, and activism profiles of immigrants and even the second generation. Her work has been recognized with two career awards, three book awards, and three article awards, and she has received postdoctoral fellowships and grants from a wide variety of sources.