Padmini Biswas
Padmini Biswas received her Ph.D. in urban planning from Columbia University, her master’s degree with distinction from the London School of Economics, a B.S. in civil engineering from the Cooper Union, and a B.A. in English from Vassar College.
Dr. Biswas has held various leadership positions in the social justice space. She advanced diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives within New York State government, directed an undergraduate human rights education program that took students to Nepal, Jordan and Chile to broaden their perspectives on activism, and served as the Assistant Director of the Center for Place, Culture and Politics at the CUNY Graduate Center. Dr. Biswas is the founding editor of SALT, a South Asian American community-based literary journal funded by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.
Dr. Biswas is a 2023 Fellow of the Pulitzer Center ‘1619 Project’ Education Network, a 2024 Queens College AANAPISI Project Faculty Fellow in Asian American Studies, and a 2023-2025 National Science Foundation MakeSTEAM-Q Faculty Fellow. She is the Labor Studies Advisor and teaches courses focused on urban diversity, global cities, and labor and globalization.
Office: Powdermaker Rm. 250
Email: padmini.biswas@qc.cuny.edu