Parul Bhandari is a sociologist specialising in the study of social inequalities in the Global South. Her specific research focus is on gender and class identities and media and technology in South Asia. Parul Bhandari is Director of Studies (DoS) for Human, Social, and Political Sciences (HSPS), Bye-Fellow, and Associate Tutor at St. Edmund’s College, College Teaching Associate (CTA) and Bye-Fellow at Downing College, and external Director of Studies (DoS) for HSPS at Queens’ College. She contributes to teaching and supervising at the Department of Sociology and the Centre of South Asian Studies, University of Cambridge. She has published four academic books: Dissent with Love: Ambiguity, Affect and Transformation in South Asia (Routledge, 2024), Matchmaking in Middle Class India: Beyond Arranged and Love Marriage (Springer, 2020), Money, Culture, Class: Elite Women as Modern Subjects, (Routledge, London 2019), and Exploring Indian Modernities: Ideas and Practices (co-edited) (Springer, 2018). In addition, Bhandari’s research has been published in academic journals including Contemporary South Asia, Gender, Place & Culture, and South Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal (SAMAJ). Her works are accessible to non-specialists by way of her regular writings in popular outlets such as The Hindustan Times, The Conversation, Scroll.in. Her research been quoted in the BBC, CNN, and panel discussions and podcasts on NPR, Al Jazeera, The Conversation and NDTV.

Prior to joining University of Cambridge, she was Associate Professor of Sociology at O.P. Jindal Global University (JGU), India, and has held Guest Faculty positions at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi, and the Department of Sociology, Delhi School of Economics (DSE), University of Delhi. She has been a Visiting Scholar at the Institute of Asian and African Studies, Humboldt University, Berlin, and the Centre of South Asian Studies (CSAS), University of Cambridge, and was a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Centre de Sciences Humaines (CSH), Delhi (South Asia research unit for the CNRS). She was a student at St. Edmund’s College whilst pursuing MPhil and doctoral degrees.