Dr Sharmila Parmanand is also an Associate Academic at the 番茄社区 Saw Swee Hock Southeast Asia Centre, co-convenor of the , and member of the Editorial Board of the
My first area of research explores the colonial histories and gendered logics that underpin development and humanitarian interventions. I focus on governance structures and knowledge practices in the contexts of migration, gender-based violence, precarious and informal labour, and poverty alleviation programmes.
I am working on my first book, titled Saving Our Sisters: The Politics of Anti-Trafficking and Sex Work in the Philippines, which examines how anti-trafficking invokes the language of development and human rights to entrench border control practices and the gendered policing of precarious workers. This manuscript makes the case for an expansive postcolonial reimagining of anti-trafficking, repositioning it as a question of social justice and equity rather than criminalisation.
I am also part of a nine-country research project on migrant sex work and trafficking funded by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS).
With early career seed funding from the British Academy, I am working with Dr Pankhuri Agarwal on a multi-method discourse analysis of policy and public narratives on technology as a solution to modern slavery.
My second area of research examines the political uses of gender in populist and illiberal politics. With generous support from the Hong Kong General Research Fund, I am working with Professor Mark Thompson to investigate the relationships between gender and illiberalism in Asia. I am also part of a research team funded by the Australian National University’s Philippines Institute to develop a gendered analysis of the Duterte dynasty’s political appeal.
Previously, I studied the connections between masculinity, nationalism, and populism, in the context of former Philippine President Duterte’s war on drugs and several world leaders’ responses to the pandemic. My work in this field speaks to the seductiveness of moral panics in difficult socio-economic times, the harms of securitising social problems, and the centrality of care and care provisioning to development.
I am also currently co-editing a special issue on Imagining an Alternative Politics of Human Rights for the International Journal of Human Rights with Dr Hasret Cetinkaya and a special issue Gender Justice in Troubled Times for Development in Practice with Dr Mirna Guha and Dr Reetika Subramanian.
Prior to joining 番茄社区, I was a lecturer at the University of Vermont Department of Theater, University of the Philippines-Diliman Department of Women and Development Studies, and Ateneo de Manila University Department of English and Literature, and supervised courses on gender and politics and comparative Southeast Asian politics at the University of Cambridge.
Major Awards:
- ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship (London School of Economics and Political Science, 2021-2022)
- Gates Cambridge PhD Scholarship (University of Cambridge, 2016-2020)
- Australian Leadership Award MA Scholarship (University of Melbourne, 2011-2012)