Sweta Rajan-Rankin

Academic qualifications

• 2005-2009: DPhil in Social Policy, Department of Social Policy & Social Work, University of Oxford
• 2003-2005: MPhil in Comparative Social Policy, Department of Social Policy & Social Work,
• University of Oxford
• 2001-2002: Masters in Social Work (MSW), Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, India
• 1997-2000: Bachelors of Arts (Honours) in Psychology, Lady Shri Ram College, New Delhi, India

 

Committee responsibilities

Elected Academic Representative (Social Work) for the School Board, School of Health Sciences and Social Care (2010-2012)

Admin responsibilities

Social Work Research Seminar Coordinator (2009 to present)

Marketing and Admissions Officer (2009-2010)

Teaching responsibilities

• Module Leader for BA Level 1 Social Policy (SW1052)
• Module Leader for MA Level 1 Social Policy & Social Welfare (SW5533)
• Guest Lecturer, School Research Methods Module (HH5577)
• Guest Lecturer, MA Dissertation Workshops (SW5540)
• Guest Lecturer, Quantitative Methods, Youth and Community Work (YCW)
• Guest Lecturer, Quantitative Methods, Social Work Research Methods (SW3061)
• Academic Tutor: BA Level 1 to 3
• MA Supervision: Dissertation supervisor for MA Level 2 students
• BA Supervision: Special Project supervisor for BA Level 3 students

PhD supervision

PhD internal examiner for Rachel Sumner (2012). 'The Role of Hemispheric Lateralization in Immunity & Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 (HIV-1). PhD in Neurorehabilitation, SHSSC

PhD transfer of status examiner for Mary Berwick (2012). 'Domestic violence as a public health issue' DrPH programme, SHSSC

Other responsibilities

 

Research interests

Sweta Rajan-Rankin is primarily interested in transnational corporations, globalization, worker identity and work-life integration in developing countries. Her DPhil thesis from Oxford University titled "The balancing act? Work-life conflict and balance in Indian call centres" explored the shifting work-life experiences of globally outsourced call centre workers. Emotional labour, humour as a tool for resistance, gendering of organizations and unpacking paternalistic practices inform much of her research. Viewing both 'culture' and 'gender' as post-structuralist spaces where identity is being constantly reshaped and redefined, she is interested in the ways in which 'westernized' work practices are localized in developing countries. Liminal spaces of men, maleness and masculinities in feminized globalized work also fascinate her. More broadly she is interested in the interaction between social policies, social practices and individual realities. Orginally a quantitiatve researcher, she has begun to delve into the rich and wonderful world of qualitative research and brings mixed methods into her research practice. She supervises BA Level 3 research projects and MA Level 2 dissertations and invites the interest of prospective PhD students who want to research gender in organizations, globalization, work-life balance and policy change.

Research projects and grants

Research grants

'A New Form of Emotional Labour? Cultural Immersion in Indian Call Centres' (Small Grant £10,000 awarded by Richard Benjamin Memorial Trust for Social and Occupational Psychology (Grant Code R29106). To learn more visit the site below:

• Richard Benjamin Project, Brunel
  

Membership and affiliation

Member, Brunel Institute for Ageing Studies

Member, British Sociological Association

Member, DOP Work-Life Balance Working Group, BPS

Member, International Work Family Research Network

Associate Editor, Community Work and Family

Professional activities or recognition

 

Conferences

2012 : "A new form of emotional labour? Cultural immersion in Indian call centres", Panel Symposium "Richard Benjamin Grants: Innovation in Psychological Research", British Psychological Society Conference, London (18-20 April 2012)

2012 : "Cultural immersion in Indian call centres: Post-colonialism, discourse and practices", Multiculturalism: Theory and Practice Conference, Cardiff University (14-17 May 2012)

2012 : Stream Leader, 'New Masculinities? Reshaping the Discourse', 7th Biennial Gender Work and Organization Conference, Keele University (27-29 June 2012)

2011: 'Social Support and Work-Family Conflict: Testing a Predictor, Mediator and Moderator Model', Sixth International Social Science Conference, New Orleans, USA (10-12 July 2011)

2011: 'Masculinities in Indian call centres', Stream leader of 'Work-life and men, IVth International Conference for Work and Family, IESE Business School, Barcelona Spain (4-6 July 2011)

2011: 'A culture of fakeness? Globality, culture and worker identity in Indian call centres', Community Work and Family Conference, University of Tampere, Finland (19-21 May 2011)

2011: with Suzan Lewis, 'Lived experience and context theorizing: Work-life across time, place and context', International Work-Life Conference, Rouen Business School, Paris, France (17 May 2011)

2010: 'Emotion-at-work, culture and work-life balance: A study of Indian call centres' DOP Work-Life Balance Working Group Conference, University of Surrey (5-6 July 2010)

 

 

 

 

Other external activities

Reviewer for ESRC First Grant Scheme (now closed)

Reviewer for Community Work and Family Journal

Reviewer for Applied Psychology:An International Review Journal

Reviewer for International Social Work

Reviewer for European Management Journal

Other publications

Rajan-Rankin, S. & Tomlinson (2012). Do work-family policies really 'work'? Evidence from Indian call centers. In. J.Greenhaus, S.A.Y. Poelmans & M.de la Heras (Eds) . Expanding the boundaries of work-family research: A vision for the future. Palgrave Macmillan: Basingstoke

Lewis, S., & Rajan-Rankin, S (2012). Deconstructing ‘family’ ‘supportive’ ‘cultures’: A vision for the future. In. J.Greenhaus, S.A.Y. Poelmans & M.de la Heras (Eds) . Expanding the boundaries of work-family research: A vision for the future. Palgrave Macmillan: Basingstoke