Dr Rachel Simon-Kumar

Dr Rachel Simon-Kumar is associate professor within the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences at the University of Auckland.

Rachel Simon-Kumar is senior lecturer in the School of Social Sciences at the University of Waikato, Hamilton.

Her key areas of teaching are in women’s studies and public policy. Her research interests span topics in development studies, particularly in the gender dimensions of economic transitions.

Her doctoral research focused on reproductive health politics in Kerala as part of a wider transition to neoliberalism in India. More recently, her research explores questions of marginalisation among ethnic migrants and women in New Zealand, and the politics of their inclusion into mainstream policymaking.

She worked in the New Zealand public sector undertaking policy research from 2003-2007. Her book, Marketing Reproduction? (Zubaan Books, Delhi) was published in 2006. In 2009, she received a Marsden Fast-Start Grant for working on policymaking and the inclusion of marginal groups.

Her academic publications can be found in the Economic and Political Weekly of India, Indian Journal of Gender Studies, Women’s Studies Journal, Social Politics, Ethnicities, and Politics and Policy.

For more details, see Dr Simon-Kumar’s profile.