My research program is guided by two broad questions 1: how does entrepreneurship interacts with social structure, particularly in marginalized contexts. 2. How do institutions shape socio-economic life in a community. My research program, thus, can be positioned in the intersection of entrepreneurship and organization theory, under the umbrella of economic sociology.
To explore the above mentioned questions, I take a comprehensive methodological approach. First, I explore a marginalized community and ethnographically theorize their ways of organizing. Second, I use survey to collect quantitative evidence of their lives and livelihoods. And finally, I design interventions to understand mechanisms of bringing positive socio-economic change.
Currently, I'm working on five projects based on data collected from the world's largest refugee camp: The Kutupalong. In these projects, using both qualitative and quantitative data, I explore how forcibly displaced Rohingyas of Myanmar organize their lives in the camp for valued identity and dignity: how do they make a life in the deleterious camp condition? I also explore their community lives and their religious institutions that create and sustain social injustice in the community and how organizations working in the camp are challenging such institutions for positive social change.