Social Work: Faculty & Staff

Dr. Sunny Sinha

Dr. Sunny Sinha teaches advanced social work practice with individuals, social welfare policy, and global perspective in social work courses to graduate students. She got her Ph.D. in Social Work from the University of South Carolina, Columbia, and her Master's degree in social work with a specialization in Family and Child Welfare from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, India.

As a feminist scholar, her research and scholarship have focused on a wide range of global issues, including HIV prevention, sex work, trafficking, migration, and issues related to gender, race, class and sexuality. She has worked with several local NGO's and grassroots organizations in India on the issue of women's overall health and well-being and has several years of practice and administrative experience in the development sector. Dr. Sinha has presented and published her work in a number of national and international scholarly conferences and journals.  She is also a Fahs-Beck scholar as she was awarded the Fahs-beck Doctoral Dissertation Research and Experimentation Award for her doctoral study entitled "Flying” Female Sex Workers in Kolkata, India: Using cultural biography to Understand HIV Risk Perception in 2009.

Her current research topics are using cell-phone based technology for HIV prevention and treatment among vulnerable groups and HIV risk perceptions of male clients of female sex workers in India.

Published Articles:

• Sinha, S. (2016). Ethical and Safety Issues in doing sex work research: Reflections from a field-based ethnographic research in Kolkata, India, Qualitative Health Research (QHR), Published online: doi:10.1177/1049732316669338
• Sinha, S. (2015). Reasons for women’s entry into sex work: A case study of Kolkata, India, Sexuality & Culture, 19 (1), 216-235.
• Sinha, S. (2014). “Flying female sex workers perceptions of HIV risk and NGOs sexual health outreach projects: A case study of HIV prevention in Kolkata, India” AFFILIA: The Journal of Women in Social Work. 29(2), 206-223
• Fram, M.S., Kim, J. & Sinha, S. (2011). "Early care and prekindergarten care as influences on school readiness" Journal of Family Issues, 20, 1-28

Accepted for Publication:

• Sinha, S. (accepted for publication). Sex workers and HIV/AIDS in India, Encyclopedia of Social Work

Recent Scholarly Presentations

• Sinha, S, Christiana Paradis, Cell-phone technology based Interventions for Violence Preventions, an Interactive Workshop at Council for Social Work Education, at Denver, Colorado, October 15th – October 18^th 2015
• Presenter, “HIV Risk Perceptions of ‘Flying’ Female sex workers in Kolkata, India” at the 18th Biennial International Consortium for Social Development (ICSD) Conference, Kampala, Uganda, 15th -19^th July 2013.
• Presenter  “Risk perceptions of an HIV positive woman residing in a brothel of Kolkata, India: A Case Study" at the 6th IAS Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention (IAS 2011), Rome, 17^th -20^th  July 2011
• Presenter, “ Ethical & Safety Issues in doing sex work research: Reflections from the field-based ethnographic research in Kolkata, India”, at 27th Annual Ethnographic and Qualitative Research Conference, at Las Vegas, Nevada, February 9^th -10^th  2015
• Presenter, “Why to involve clients of female sex workers in HIV prevention programs?” accepted in the Health Track for the 2014 Annual Program Meeting (APM) at Tampa, Florida, October 23^rd – October 26^th 2014, 2014.
• Presenter, "Reasons for Women's Entry Into Sex Work: A Case Study of India” at the Society for Social Work Research (SSWR) Annual Conference in San Antonio, TX, at San Antonio, Texas, 15^th  January – 19^th  January 2014.

Invited Presentations

• Invited Speaker, “HIV prevention among non-brothel-based sex workers in India”, Faculty of Social Work, M.S. University, Baroda, India, July 2014
• Invited talk, “HIV Risk Perceptions of male clients of female sex workers in Kolkata, India”, Department of Social Work, Visva-Bharati University, Sriniketan, West Bengal, India ( December 2013)

 Invited Speaker, “Lessons Learned About HIV Risk Perceptions of Women: A Case Study of Non-Brothel Based Sex Workers in Kolkata, India” for World AIDS Day at University of Mississippi, Oxford, December 1^st 2011.