Public Scholar Speaker Equity Advocate Author
ABOUT
Pawan H. Dhingra
Dr. Dhingra explores how identity, opportunity, and belonging shape the experiences of individuals and communities. He serves as Vice President for Equity and Inclusion at Amherst College, where he is also the Aliki Perroti and Seth Frank ’55 Professor of U.S. Immigration Studies and Chair of the Asian American and Pacific Islander Studies Program. A sociologist, professor, and author, his work examines immigration, education, race and inequality, identity, work, parenting, and Asian American life.
Dr. Dhingra brings scholarship into conversation with the broader public, using sociology to examine questions of immigration, education, race and inequality, identity, entrepreneurship, parenting, and Asian American life. His work has taken him from the classroom and the page to national institutions and public forums. As former Curator and Senior Advisor to the Smithsonian Institution’s Beyond Bollywood project and past President of the Association for Asian American Studies, he has helped shape conversations about Asian American experiences and their place in American life.
Through his books and public scholarship, Dr. Dhingra challenges conventional ideas about identity, achievement, education, and the American Dream. He is the author of the award-winning Hyper Education: Why Good Schools, Good Grades, and Good Behavior Are Not Enough, Life Behind the Lobby: Indian American Motel Owners and the American Dream, and Managing Multicultural Lives: Asian American Professionals and the Challenge of Multiple Identities. He is also the co-author of Asian America and co-editor of Disciplinary Futures: Sociology in Conversation with American, Ethnic, and Indigenous Studies. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, Time, CNN, and other national publications.
His scholarship reaches audiences well beyond academia. His work has been featured by NPR, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, and other media outlets, and he has spoken at the White House, Smithsonian Institution, Embassy of India, universities, and other national and international forums. He was featured in the Netflix documentary Spelling the Dream and presented “Why You Should Use Your (Sociological) Imagination” as part of Talks at Harvard University, where he explores the power of sociological thinking to understand the world around us.
Before joining Amherst, Dr. Dhingra built a career in higher education at Tufts University, Oberlin College, and Bucknell University, serving as a professor, department chair, and mentor to students and colleagues. He earned his Ph.D. in Sociology from Cornell University and his B.A. with distinction and honors from Carleton College.
For Dr. Dhingra, teaching remains central to his work. He values the vigorous back-and-forth of classroom discussion and the opportunity to explore ideas with students. Outside the classroom, he enjoys reading, cooking—especially breakfast foods and Tex-Mex—trying the occasional exercise fad, and spending time with his family.