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Prabha Kotiswaran

Professor Prabha Kotiswaran

Professor of Law & Social Justice

Research interests

  • Law

Biography

Dr Prabha Kotiswaran is Professor of Law and Social Justice. She previously taught at SOAS. She received her undergraduate law degree in India from the National Law School of India University, Bangalore and then an LLM and SJD (doctorate) from Harvard Law School. She also practiced law at the New York law firm of Debevoise and Plimpton.

Research interests

Dr Kotiswaran’s main areas of research include criminal law, transnational criminal law, feminist legal studies and sociology of law.

She is the author of Dangerous Sex, Invisible Labor: Sex Work and the Law in India, published by Princeton University Press (2011) and co-published by Oxford University Press, India (2011). Dangerous Sex, Invisible Labor won the SLSA-Hart Book Prize for Early Career Academics and has been extensively reviewed by several law and inter-disciplinary journals.

She has also edited Sex Work (Women Unlimited 2011) for a Series on Issues in Contemporary Indian Feminism and two journal special issues on an Economic Sociology of Law (with Amanda Perry-Kessaris and Diamond Ashiagbor) for the Journal of Law and Society (2013) and the Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly (2014). She recently edited Revisiting the Law and Governance of Trafficking, Forced Labor and Modern Slavery (Cambridge Studies in Law and Society, 2017). She co-authored Governance Feminism: An Introduction (University of Minnesota Press 2018) and co-edited Governance Feminism: Notes from the Field (University of Minnesota Press 2019), both with Janet Halley, Rachel Rebouché and Hila Shamir). She has recently co-edited the Routledge Handbook of Law and Society with Mariana Valverde, Eve Darian-Smith and Kamari Clarke (Routledge 2021).

She is Notes Editor for the Indian Law Review (Taylor & Francis) and founding editor member of the Open Democracy Blog Beyond Slavery and Trafficking. She has been Senior Editor for Oxford Handbooks in Law Online, and on the Editorial Board of the Canadian Journal of Law and Society and on the advisory boards of the Jindal Global Law Review, Review of Women’s Studies (EPW) and the Indian Journal of Human Development. She is co-editor for the Routledge series on New Trajectories in Law. She was Co-Convener (with Peer Zumbansen) of the Transnational Law Summer Institute (TLSI) held in June 2015 and June 2016.

Her research has been funded by the AHRC, Leverhulme Trust, ESRC, European Research Council, the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University and the Institute for Global Law and Policy, Harvard Law School. Professor Kotiswaran was awarded the Philip Leverhulme Prize in 2014. Starting September 2018, she is PI for a five-year European Research Council-funded Consolidator Grant titled the Laws of Social Reproduction.

    Research

    LawofSocRep Project Profile
    Laws of Social Reproduction

    Five-year interdisciplinary, cross-sectoral project to re-theorise the normative, empirical, regulatory & political dimensions of social reproduction in India.

    Project status: Ongoing

    Events

    01DecPart-time for all A care manifesto  thumbnail

    Part-Time for All. A Care Manifesto

    A book launch/discussion in the seminar series of Conversations on Social Reproduction

    Please note: this event has passed.

    03NovEquality without equity thumbnail (1)

    Equality Without Equity: Matrimonial Property Rights of Women in Goa

    Seminar: Conversations on Social Reproduction

    Please note: this event has passed.

    06OctConversations on Social Reproductionthumbnail

    Seminar: Conversations on Social Reproduction

    Online Seminar: Conversations on Social Reproduction

    Please note: this event has passed.

    08Sep_Advocating for the recognition of Women's Unpaid Labour thumbnail

    Advocating for the recognition of Women’s Unpaid Labour

    Conversations on Social Reproduction: Advocating for the recognition of Women’s Unpaid Labour: Perspectives from the Courtroom

    Please note: this event has passed.

    11AugPhoto - Jeanne Menjoulet

    Improving working and living conditions of domestic workers

    Seminar: Conversations on Social Reproduction

    Please note: this event has passed.

    14Julseminar conversations on social reproduction image

    Seminar: Conversations on Social Reproduction

    Seminar and book launch

    Please note: this event has passed.

    27AprTackling forced labour and human trafficking

    What works (and does not work) in reducing vulnerability to forced labour and human trafficking of migrant women workers?

    Expert panel: Tackling forced labour and human trafficking globally

    Please note: this event has passed.

    04MaySDG5

    Advancing Gender Equality in Work and Business: SDG 5

    Please join us for this SDG 5 (Advancing Gender Equality in Work and Business Workshop at King's Business School.

    Please note: this event has passed.

    13Jullaw-news-image-SocialReproductionAnnualLecture-780x440

    Second Annual Lecture: Laws of Social Reproduction with Professor Silvia Federici

    This social reproduction seminar series is part of the Laws of Social Reproduction project led by Prof. Prabha Kotiswaran and based at Kings

    Please note: this event has passed.

    Spotlight

    Developing greater protections for victims of modern slavery in the UK, India, and internationally

    Modern slavery is a major global problem, but it remains largely hidden. King’s research has helped policymakers to interpret and develop legislation that...

    globe

      Research

      LawofSocRep Project Profile
      Laws of Social Reproduction

      Five-year interdisciplinary, cross-sectoral project to re-theorise the normative, empirical, regulatory & political dimensions of social reproduction in India.

      Project status: Ongoing

      Events

      01DecPart-time for all A care manifesto  thumbnail

      Part-Time for All. A Care Manifesto

      A book launch/discussion in the seminar series of Conversations on Social Reproduction

      Please note: this event has passed.

      03NovEquality without equity thumbnail (1)

      Equality Without Equity: Matrimonial Property Rights of Women in Goa

      Seminar: Conversations on Social Reproduction

      Please note: this event has passed.

      06OctConversations on Social Reproductionthumbnail

      Seminar: Conversations on Social Reproduction

      Online Seminar: Conversations on Social Reproduction

      Please note: this event has passed.

      08Sep_Advocating for the recognition of Women's Unpaid Labour thumbnail

      Advocating for the recognition of Women’s Unpaid Labour

      Conversations on Social Reproduction: Advocating for the recognition of Women’s Unpaid Labour: Perspectives from the Courtroom

      Please note: this event has passed.

      11AugPhoto - Jeanne Menjoulet

      Improving working and living conditions of domestic workers

      Seminar: Conversations on Social Reproduction

      Please note: this event has passed.

      14Julseminar conversations on social reproduction image

      Seminar: Conversations on Social Reproduction

      Seminar and book launch

      Please note: this event has passed.

      27AprTackling forced labour and human trafficking

      What works (and does not work) in reducing vulnerability to forced labour and human trafficking of migrant women workers?

      Expert panel: Tackling forced labour and human trafficking globally

      Please note: this event has passed.

      04MaySDG5

      Advancing Gender Equality in Work and Business: SDG 5

      Please join us for this SDG 5 (Advancing Gender Equality in Work and Business Workshop at King's Business School.

      Please note: this event has passed.

      13Jullaw-news-image-SocialReproductionAnnualLecture-780x440

      Second Annual Lecture: Laws of Social Reproduction with Professor Silvia Federici

      This social reproduction seminar series is part of the Laws of Social Reproduction project led by Prof. Prabha Kotiswaran and based at Kings

      Please note: this event has passed.

      Spotlight

      Developing greater protections for victims of modern slavery in the UK, India, and internationally

      Modern slavery is a major global problem, but it remains largely hidden. King’s research has helped policymakers to interpret and develop legislation that...

      globe