Introducing Nobel laureate, Prof. Amartya Sen during his UC Berkeley visit in March 2016
SANCHITA BANERJEE SAXENA
Dr. Sanchita Banerjee Saxena is social scientist who works at the intersection of the social sciences and business and human rights. She is an advisor, researcher, educator, author, and thought leader. Dr. Saxena received her MA and Ph.D. in Political Science (focus on Comparative Political Economy) from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in 2002 and her BA in Sociology and English (with highest honors) from the University of California, Davis in 1995.
Currently, Dr. Saxena is a Senior Advisor to Article One, a specialized strategy and management consultancy with expertise in human rights, responsible innovation, and sustainability where she advises companies on responsible supply chains. She is also currently a member of the British Standards Institution’s human rights due diligence standards writing committee. She has also served as an advisor to Harvard Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic, Caribou Digital, Fundacao Getulio Vargas, BRAC Social Innovation Lab, H&M Foundation, and the Human Rights Measurement Initiative.
She is also a non-resident Research Fellow at the Institute for Human Rights and Business, serves on the BRAC USA Advisory Council, is a Global Faculty member at the Center for Asian Health Research and Education (CARE), Stanford University, a Faculty Affiliate at the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment at UC Berkeley, and a member of the Research Network on Sustainable Global Supply Chains, commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. In the past, she was a Visiting Scholar at the NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights (2023-2024), a Visiting Researcher at the Copenhagen Business School (2023), a practitioner resident at the Rockefeller Foundation's Bellagio Center in Italy (2016), and a Public Policy Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington D.C (2010 and 2014).
Dr. Saxena has taught courses in Political Economy, Comparative Politics, The Politics of Developing Countries, Doing Business in India, and the Politics of Economic Reform in Asia and Latin America at UC Berkeley, UC Davis, and the University of San Francisco. In the fall semester, she teaches an undergraduate and MBA course on business and labor rights in global supply chains through the Center for Responsible Business at the Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley. She is a part of the Sustainability @ Haas faculty, a member of the Teaching Business and Human Rights Forum, a member of the Global Business School Network for Business and Human Rights, and a member of the Global Business and Human Rights Scholars Association. She also lectures in the Business and Human Rights Master Course through the University of Bergen, Norway and through the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership at the University of Cambridge. She has given invited guest lectures at UC Berkeley, UCLA, IE University, Madrid, and Sciences Po and HEC in Paris. Dr. Saxena was awarded the UC Berkeley Center for Teaching and Learning Lecturer Teaching Fellowship for 2021-22 where she created teaching modules to infuse human rights throughout the business school curriculum. In 2022, she was the commencement speaker for the Department of South and Southeast Asian Studies, UC Berkeley’s graduation ceremony.
Dr. Saxena is the editor of Labor, Global Supply Chains, and the Garment Industry in South Asia: Bangladesh after Rana Plaza (2019, Routledge) and author of Made in Bangladesh, Cambodia, and Sri Lanka: The Labor Behind the Global Garment and Textiles Industries (2014, Cambria Press). She has also published several policy reports, conference reports, articles, and book chapters on labor and human rights, urbanization, and governance and democracy. She serves on the editorial board for the Bristol UP series on Business, Finance & International Development. Her research has been funded by UC Berkeley, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Asia Foundation, the Woodrow Wilson Center, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), and BRAC University.
Dr. Saxena has given more than fifty invited lectures throughout the United States, Asia, and Europe at several universities (including Georgetown University, Johns Hopkins University, Harvard University, the London School of Economics, the National University of Singapore, and Kings College), international organizations (including the United Nations in Geneva and the United States International Trade Commission), government agencies (US Department of Labor and US Department of State), non-profit organizations (such as the Open Society Foundation, Humanity United, and the Asia Society), and museums (such as the Victoria & Albert Museum in London and the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology). Her commentaries and interviews have been featured in the New York Times, Economic and Political Weekly, Foreign Policy, Vogue Business, Supply Chain Dive, Thomson Reuters, Information Week, The Daily Star, and aired on Voice of America, LinkTV, KQED World, and KPFA.
From 2007-2023, she was the Executive Director of the Institute for South Asia Studies (ISAS) at UC Berkeley where she was responsible for spearheading new research initiatives, managing multi-year grants, developing programmatic activities, securing funding opportunities through grants, individual, and corporate donors, establishing internal and external partnerships, administering fellowships, disseminating research through articles and reports, overseeing the Institute’s long term strategy, and providing the administrative leadership for the day-to-day operations of the Institute. Dr. Saxena also served as the Director of the Subir and Malini Chowdhury Center for Bangladesh Studies for a decade where she spearheaded collaborations for faculty and students between UC Berkeley and universities, private companies, NGOs, and research organizations in Bangladesh.
Dr. Saxena continues to support initiatives related to South Asian art and culture and social and economic development programs amongst the disapora and in the region. She was an invited speaker for the South Asian Helpline and Referral Agency’s (SAHARA) Annual Fundraising Gala in 2022 and an invited moderator at the South Asia Literature and Arts Festival in 2023.
