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Alternate text for photo: Shamayeta is wearing a white color t-shirt. A swan pendant Ahangs from her neck. She has mid-length curly hair and is smiling with her mouth open.

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Shamayeta Bhattacharya (she/her) is a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Department of Community Engagement, Point Park University. She completed her Ph.D. from the University of Connecticut's Department of Geography and also completed graduate certificates in Human Rights and Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies.

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She is a broadly trained health and gender geographer. Her research and teaching focuses on the impact of health disparity, alcohol and substance use behavior, social support on mental health outcomes and healthcare access among transgender people within the broader framework of human rights and public policy. Her research has been regionally focused in South Asia, with her ongoing projects in Kolkata and Cooch Behar in India.

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She uses a combination of quantitative (spatial statistics, regressions) and qualitative (interview, focus group discussion, content analysis, text mining in Atlas Ti) methods, health models, policy intervention, and intersectional approaches for identifying inequities in health access among vulnerable populations.

 

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She has published in journals like Social Science and Medicine, the Journal of Human Rights practice, and has manuscripts under review in and Health and Place. Her dissertation has been funded by the American Association of Geographers, UConn’s Human Rights Institute, and UConn’s Women’s Center writing fellowships.

Ph.D. dissertation project

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She is presently working on her Ph.D. dissertation, SHAKTHI: Studying Healthcare Accessibility among Kothi, Transgender, and Hijra Individuals”, which is situated at the nexus of health and transgender geography, human rights, public policy, Health GIS and spatial statistics. Grounded in the lived experiences of trans people at healthcare spaces, their access to healthcare, perception of their safety and discrimination, and substantive access to rights. SHAKTHI expands the concept of ‘accessibility by understanding access interconnected with issues pertaining to substantive access to rights, class, gender, discrimination, and spatial inequality stemming from critical accessibility theory —rather than just focusing on spatial or geographic access.

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  • Ph.D. in Geography, University of Connecticut, USA, 2017 - 2022

  • M.Sc. in Geography, Presidency University, Kolkata, India, 2014 - 2016

  • B.Sc. in Geography, Presidency University, Kolkata India, 2014 - 2011

  • WGSS 2124: Gender and Globalization

  • GEOG 1700: World Regional Geography

  • WGSS 1150: Gender and Sexuality in everyday Life

  • GEOG 2000: Globalization

  • GEOG 1200: Cites in the Western tradition

  • Das, S., and Bhattacharya, S. (2021) “Factors affecting beach walkability- Tourists' perception study at selected beaches of West Bengal, India” Tourism Management Perspective

  • Bhattacharya, S. ; Ghosh, D. (2020) Studying physical and mental health issues among Hijra, Kothi and Transgender community in urban India, Social Science and Medicine. doi: 10.1017/CBO9781107415324.004.

  • Bhattacharya, S., Purkayastha, B. and Ghosh, D. (2021)“What Happened Afterwards: The Transgender Community’s Successes and Challenges in Substantively Accessing their Human Rights in India” Human Rights Practice 

  • Bhattacharya, S., Dasgupta, D and Ghosh, D.(2021) “‘Trans’ turn to Geographies of Sexuality: Transgender Geography from South Asia” Annals of American Association of Geography (Under Review)

  • 2020, Race, Ethnicity and Place (REP) best student paper award (Amount: $100)

  • 2020, 100 years of women’s scholarship, Source: Women’s Center, UConn (Amount: $750)

  • 2020, Feminist Praxis award, Source: Department of Women’s Gender and Sexuality, UConn (Amount: $250

  • 2019, Summer Fellowship, Source: Department of Geography, UConn (Amount: $1900)

  • 2018, Summer Fellowship, Source: Department of Women’s Gender and Sexuality, UConn (Amount: $500

  • 2018, Wood/Raith Living Trust summer fellowship (Amount: $4000)

  • 2017, Best Graduate Student Paper Award Source: NESTVAL Conference, Central Connecticut State University (Amount: $350)

  • 2015, Lectureship Award; Junior Research Fellowship, Source: National Eligibility Test (N.E.T.) conducted by the University Grants Commission (U.G.C.) of India (Amount: $3000)

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