Monica Bhatia

Biography

Curriculum Vitae

Assistant Professor

Ph.D., University of Texas at Austin, 2024

Areas

Sociology of Gender, Environmental Sociology, Intentional Communities, Racialized and Gendered Organizations, Qualitative, Ethnographic, and Feminist Methods

Research Interests

I am a sociologist using qualitative, ethnographic, feminist, and community-engaged methods to study intentional communities and worker cooperatives. My first line of research has focused on what I refer to as ecological intentional communities. These are democratically organized collective living groups that practice alternatives ways of living in pursuit of ecological sustainability. I study how the practices of these communities promote or stymie environmental justice. My work on intentional communities has focused on the realms of work, food, and housing. In my next line of research, I am investigating institutional barriers to starting new worker cooperatives and intentional communities. I am pursuing community engaged scholarship on “non-extractive financing,” a new form of cooperative funding which has the goal of reducing barriers for marginalized populations to start worker cooperatives. I am also investigating how traditional financing models, real estate development practices, and government policies exacerbate inequality in forming intentional communities.

Selected Publications

Bhatia, Monica. (2023). “Work and Sustainability at Twin Oaks Intentional Community.” Research in the Sociology of Work, 35:73-93.

Bhatia, Monica. (2021). “Gender and Sustainability in Ecological Intentional Communities.” Environmental Sociology, 8(2):199-210.