The University of Massachusetts Amherst is honored to host Dr. Purendra Prasad, a distinguished sociologist from the University of Hyderabad, India, as a Fulbright Nehru Visiting Chair within the School of Public Policy. Prasad, who has dedicated his career to the study of social inequalities and the political economy of health, brings a wealth of academic expertise and international experience to our campus.
Prasad’s academic journey spans over two decades, with research affiliations at institutions such as the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Mumbai and the Indian Council for Social Science Research institute in Gujarat. His work has taken him beyond India, with research engagements in Kenya, the UK, and the United States. Reflecting on his interdisciplinary approach as a sociologist, Prasad notes, “My PhD work was largely in agrarian studies, but I transitioned into health research through collaborative projects on tropical diseases and epidemiology.” His interest in medical anthropology led him to Brunel University in London and he later worked with the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute in California.
At UMass Amherst, Prasad is leveraging his expertise to explore comparative healthcare systems. His observations on the U.S. healthcare model highlight the contrasts between private insurance-driven care in the U.S. and government-supported healthcare increasingly moving towards insurance-driven care in India. While Massachusetts has progressive healthcare policies, Prasad notes that the increasing corporatization of India’s healthcare system is widening socio-economic disparities. His work aims to bridge these gaps by identifying strengths in both models and proposing policy interventions.
As part of his engagement with the UMass community, Prasad is teaching a course “Health Inequities in the Global South”. His students, comprising both master’s and PhD candidates, have impressed him with their critical thinking and engagement with global issues. Prasad has designed the course to integrate theoretical frameworks with contemporary case studies on gender, disability, and access to healthcare, enriching students' perspectives on global health challenges.
Beyond the classroom, Prasad is continuing the India Lab lecture series, a platform initiated by a former Fulbright-Nehru Visiting Chair to foster dialogue on India’s socio-political and economic issues. Additionally, he is collaborating with faculty from the School of Public Policy and the Sociology and the Economics departments on projects examining wealth inequalities in India, South Africa, and Brazil. His upcoming lecture on April 25 will further explore wealth inequalities through the intersections of race, caste, and economic disparity across global contexts.
His enthusiasm for interdisciplinary collaboration and knowledge exchange is evident in his engagement with local and international scholars. By building bridges between institutions and fostering collaborations on health equity, Prasad’s tenure as a Fulbright-Nehru Visiting Chair will have great impact on the UMass community. “The Fulbright-Nehru Visiting Chair program has been instrumental in catalyzing engagement with India across campus and I am looking forward to building on these efforts to strengthen mobility and research connections with the world’s largest democracy,” noted Kalpen Trivedi, Vice Provost for Global Affairs.
Interview and article originally authored by the Office of Global Affairs.