Dr Sadhvi Dar

Profile

Roles:

• Academic Lead for Outreach and Widening Participation (School of Business and Management)
• Member of the Department of Business and Society

Biography:

Sadhvi's work develops an interdisciplinary framework to understand the connections among knowledge-making movements, institutions, and lived experiences of marginalised peoples. Her empirical work is diverse, ranging from critiques of NGO management, through to international development, higher education institutions, local government, social media, and arts organizations. Her research centers the marginalised or muted voices in institutions and has contributed to current understandings in organization studies about accountability, reporting, and decolonizing. Theoretically, Sadhvi finds inspiration in postcolonial studies, decolonial theory, feminisms of colour, social philosophy, and psychoanalytic approaches.

She served as a member of Senate at Queen Mary (2017-2020). She is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. 

Teaching

Undergraduate:

• BUS237: Corporations and Social Responsibility

Postgraduate:

• BUSM175: Corporate Social Responsibility and Business Ethics

Sadhvi's pedagogic approach primarily uses critical inquiry, collaborative learning, and experiential learning as modes of teaching that create an inclusive programme of study. This approach engages learners’ minds to new ways of posing questions and is counter to teaching didactically that forecloses the possibilities for independent learning by repeating messages and discouraging learner reflection.

Learners taking modules should expect to engage with multiple or opposing perspectives to support developing their own critical reflections. Whenever synchronous activities are provided, these will be used to foster a collaborative approach so that the learner is supported to develop autonomy and a sense of empowerment. For example, Sadhvi uses a flipped classroom approach so that you can spend time discussing ideas, identifying problems or challenges, and applying theory to real life case studies. Learning by doing is an active process where learners are encouraged to think through problems on their own.

She is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Research

Research Interests:

Her research investigates the juncture between measurement and culture, processes of knowledge production, ​governance and accountability structures and centers the marginalised or muted voices in institutions. Her work has contributed to current understandings in organization studies about accountability, reporting and decolonizing. Her research has been published in Organisation Studies, Human Relations, Organization, and Gender Work and Organization.

Theoretically, Sadhvi finds inspiration in postcolonial studies, decolonizing frameworks, social philosophy and psychoanalytic approaches, however, she also has an interest in post-structural theory more broadly. Her empirical work is diverse, ranging from critiques of NGO management, through to international development, higher education institutions, local government and arts organizations. Sadhvi has expertise in ethnography, archival research, discourse / narrative approaches, visual methodologies, cross-cultural analysis and interviewing.

Centre and Group Membership:

• Member of the Centre for Research in Equality and Diversity (CRED)
• Co-Director of Borderlines: An Interdisciplinary Research Collective 

 

Publications

Articles and special issues

• Dar, S. and Masood, A. (2023) Colonialism Otherwise and the Poetics of Solidarity: A methodological intervention de-b/ordering Kashmir. Antipode, 55(4).
• Liu, H., Dy, A., Dar, S., and Brewis, D. (2021) Special Issue editors: Anti-racism in the age of white supremacy and backlash, Equality Diversity and Inclusion: A review.
• Dar, S., Liu, H., Dy, A., and Brewis, D.N. (2020) The Business School is Racist: Act up!, Organization, OnlineFirst: https://doi.org/10.1177/1350508420928521.
• Dar, S. and Ibrahim, I. (2019) The Blackened Body and White Governmentality: Managing the UK academy and the production of shame, Gender, Work, and Organization, 26(9): 1241-1254.
• Inchley, M., Dar, S., Pujara, S, and Baker, S. (2019). The Verbatim Formula: Caring for care leavers in the neoliberal university, Research in Drama Education, 24(3): 413-419.
• Dar, S. (2018). The Masque of Blackness: Or, performing assimilation in the white academe. Organization, 26(3): 432-446.
• Dar, S. (2018). De-Colonizing the Boundary-Object. Organization Studies, 39(4): 565-584.
• Dar, S. (2014) Hybrid Accountabilities: When Western and Non-Western Accountabilities Collide, Human Relations, 67(2): 131-151.
• Dar, S. (2008) ‘Re-Connecting Histories: The Dual Modernization of Development-Management’, Journal of Health Management and Organizations, 22(2): 93-110. Emerald Award for Excellence: Outstanding Paper Award Winner.
• Dar, S. (2007) ‘Negotiating Autonomy: Organising Identities in NGOs’, Journal of Health Management, 9(2): 161-188.
• Dar, S. (1999) ‘Mirror, Mirror: The Effect of Feedback on Personal Reflection: An evaluation of one-to-one feedback in occupational psychology’, The Occupational Psychologist, Special Edition, 38: 43-58.

 

Books

• Building the Anti-Racist Classroom (2021) Building the Anti-Racist Classroom Workshop Guide, BARC collective, creative commons license.
• The Verbatim Formula (2018) The Making Places Guide: Creative Evaluation Workshops with Young People in the Care System. The Verbatim Formula, London, Open Access: http://www.theverbatimformula.org.uk/universities-and-student-care-leavers/
• Dar, S. & Cooke, B. (2008) Eds. The New Development Management: Critiquing the Dual Modernization. Zed Books, London, £16.99, ISBN: 978-1-78699-380-9.

 

Book chapters

• Dar, S., and Kalemba, J. (2023, forthcoming) ‘A feminist praxis to disrupt the white male supremacy of business management curricula’, in, E. Bell, S. Katila and S. Merilanen (Eds.), Handbook of Feminist Methodologies in Management and Organization Studies, Edward Elgar: London (pp20). 
• Masood, A. and Dar, S. (2023) ‘Colonialism Otherwise: The postcolonies’ claim on Kashmir’, in V. Doshi (Ed.) Postcoloniality in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, Routledge: New Delhi (pp20). 
• Dar, S. (2022) ‘Facebook Aesthetics: White world-making, digital imaginary and ‘the War on Terror’, in Research Anthology on Racial Equity, Identity, and Privilege, IGI Publishing, special selection. 
• Inchley, M., Siqueira, P., Dar, S., Baker, S., and Pujara, S. (2022) ‘Performing Aural and Temporal Architecture: Re-framing the University through The Verbatim Formula’, in D. Hannah, O. Harsløf , A.M. Lindelof and S. Janssen (Eds.), Performing Institutions: Reimagining their Places, Politics, Practices & Pedagogies, Performance Studies International. 
• Building the Anti-Racist Classroom (2020), Zine-making for anti-racist learning and action, in Decolonise UKC (Ed.) Towards Decolonising the University: A Kaleidoscope of Empowered Action, Counterpress, Oxford.
• Dar, S. (2020) Facebook Aesthetics: White world-making, digital imaginary and ‘the War on Terror’, in Y. Ibrahim (Ed.) Recent Developments in Internet Activism and Political Participation, IGI Publishing, pp139-153.
• Brewis, D., Dar, S., Dy, A., Liu, H. and Salmon, U. (2020) Building the antiracist classroom: How the collective makes the radical possible, in D. Gabriel (Ed.) Transforming the Ivory Tower, Trentham Books, London, pp18-34.
• Gabriel, D, Brewis, D., Dar, S., Dy, A., Liu, H, Salmon, U., Opara, E., Jackson, I., and Kwhali, (2020) J. Critical reflections on transforming the Ivory Tower and beyond, in D. Gabriel (Ed.) Transforming the Ivory Tower, Trentham Books, London, pp81-90.
• Inchley, M., Dar, S., Pujara, S. and Baker, S. (2019) The Verbatim Formula: Caring for care-leavers in the neoliberal university, in K. Solga (Ed.), Theatre and Performance in the Neoliberal University: Responses to an Academy in Crisis, Routledge, London (pp.10).
• Phillips, N. & Dar, S. (2009) ‘Strategy’. Chapter in H. Willmott, M. Alvesson, T. Bridgman eds. Handbook of Critical Management Studies, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp414-432.
• Dar, S. (2008) ‘Non-Governmental Organizations’. Entry in S. Clegg & J.R. Bailey eds. International Encyclopaedia of Organization Studies, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage (pp10).
• Cooke, B & Dar, S. (2008) ‘Introduction: Critiquing the Dual Modernization’. In S. Dar & B. Cooke eds. The New Development Management:  Critiquing the Dual Modernization. Zed Books: London, pp1-17.
• Dar, S. (2008) ‘Real-izing Development: Reports, Realities and Re-envisioning the Self’ in S. Dar & B. Cooke (Eds) The New Development Management: Critiquing the Dual Modernization, pp177-197.
• Dar, S. (2004) ‘Representing, Translating or Constructing? Reporting on HIV/AIDS Projects’ in L. Earle (ed.) Creativity and Constraint: Grassroots monitoring and evaluation and the international aid arena, Oxford: INTRAC, pp77-92.

 

Essays and other publications

• Dar, S. (2022) Southernizing academia: A parallel text to Peter Fleming’s Dark Academia, Management International.
• Decolonizing Alliance (2021) Writing orally speaking: On the collective praxis of writing decolonially. Available at: https://decolonizingalliance.wordpress.com/
• Decolonizing Alliance (2020) Decolonial resistances, contestations, and reclamations: Walking with Brown folk. Available at: https://decolonizingalliance.wordpress.com/
• Banerjee, S.B., Rodriguez, J., and Dar, S. (2020) Beyond name changes and pulling down statues – how to decolonise the business school. The Conversation, available online: https://theconversation.com/beyond-name-changes-and-pulling-down-statues-how-to-decolonise-business-schools-142394
• Dar, S., Desai, M., and Nwonka, C. (2020) ‘Students want to confront it’: Academics on how to decolonise the university. The Guardian, available online: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2020/jun/17/students-want-to-confront-it-academics-on-how-to-decolonise-the-university
• Brewis, D., Dar, S, Dy, A., Liu, H. and Salmon, U. (2019) Building the Anti-Racist Classroom: Why we need anti-racist activists in the Business Management School. WONKHE, available online: https://wonkhe.com/blogs/building-the-anti-racist-classroom/.
• Dar, S. (2018) The business of making Frida up. Left of Brown, available online: https://www.leftofbrown.com/single-post/2018/07/28/The-Business-of-Making-Frida-Up
• Dar, S., & Salmon, U. (2018). Inside the Ivory Tower: Narratives of Women of Colour Surviving and Thriving in British Academia edited by Deborah Gabriel and Shirley Ann Tate. London, UK: Trentham Books/IOE Press, 2017, 164 pp. £ 24.36, ISBN 10-185856848X, ISBN 13-978-185856848. Gender, Work & Organization.
• Dar, S., Dy, A., and Rodriguez, J.K. (2018) Is decolonising the new black? Left of Brown, available online: https://www.leftofbrown.com/single-post/2018/07/12/Is-decolonising-the-new-black
• Dar, S. and Dy, A. (2018) The post-strike landscape, Left of Brown, available online: https://www.leftofbrown.com/single-post/2018/03/12/The-Post-Strike-Landscape-2
• Dar, S. (2018) Why we need anti-racist business schools, Left of Brown, available online: https://www.leftofbrown.com/single-post/2018/01/07/Why-We-Need-Anti-Racist-Business-Schools
• Dar, S. (2017) How Black Lives Matter is changing British universities, The Nation, available online: https://www.thenation.com/article/how-black-lives-matter-is-changing-british-universities/.
  
  

Grants, Contracts and Awards:

• 2022     Awarded School funding to organise Decolonial summer School planning session (£5K)
• 2020     Nominated for Unsung Hero award, student-elected prize.
• 2019     Awarded School funding to organize 2-day collaborative Anti-Racist conference (£8K).
• 2018     The Verbatim Formula Highly Commended for Emerald Real Impact Awards.
• 2018     Awarded School funding to facilitate Anti-Racist workshop (£5K).
• 2018     Awarded Centre for Research on Equality and Diversity funding to facilitate Anti-Racist workshop (£1K).
• 2018     Awarded Society for Advancement of Management Studies funding to facilitate Anti-Racist workshop (£2K).
• 2018     Awarded 4-month sabbatical to work on publications.
• 2017     Winner QMUL Best Community Engagement Project: The Verbatim Formula.
• 2017     Awarded AHRC funding for The Verbatim Formula research project with Drama (£200K).
• 2015     Awarded School seed-corn funding for Performance-Based Evaluation Pilot (£3K).
• 2013     Awarded 12-month sabbatical for archival research on Shenley Mental Hospital.
• 2012     Awarded funding for Leverhulme Artist in Residency programme (12K).
• 2011     Nominated for Drapers Award for Excellence in Teaching, QMUL.
• 2009     Nominated for Drapers Award for Excellence in Teaching, QMUL.
• 2009     Emerald Award for Excellence: Outstanding Paper Award Winner.
• 2006     Economic and Social Research Council Full Scholarship 3-month extension.
• 2005     Fitzwilliam College Student Bursary.
• 2005     Judge Business School Conference Support Grant.
• 2005     Centre for Latin American Studies Travel Grant.
• 2004     Economic and Social Research Council Research Training Scheme Grant.
• 2003     Judge Business School Travel Grant.
• 2003     Economic and Social Research Council Full Scholarship for PhD study.
• 2002     PhD short-listed for Leverhulme Trust Study Overseas Award.
• 2001     Undergraduate Dissertation nominated for Best Report 2001.

Supervision

Areas of Supervision Expertise:

I welcome the opportunity to work with PhD students from various backgrounds and disciplines who would like to embark on a PhD in Management and Organization Studies. I would especially encourage applicants using a critical theoretical framework and qualitative approach to get in touch.

Theoretical frameworks that I find interesting are:

• Management and organization theory (Critical management studies, equalities, power)
• Post-structural and critical approaches
• Decolonizing and Postcolonial Studies
• Critical race and critical whiteness studies
• Psycho-social studies
• Black Feminism
• Knowledge production (communications, boundary-objects, local forms)

Research methods that I have expertise in:

• Ethnography
• Observation
• Interviewing
• Textual / documentary analysis
• Archival research
• Art critique and analysing visual artefacts or performance

I would like to supervise theses in the following fields and subjects:

• International development and NGOs
• Corporate Social Responsibility
• NGO monitoring and evaluation
• NGO reporting and CSR reporting
• Arts-based evaluation
• Arts organizing
• Social movements and liberation movements
• Environment, ecologies
• Indigenous organizing, knowledge and communications
• Universities and higher education (neo-liberalisation, equalities, racism)

Current Doctoral Students:

1st Supervisor

• Mahwish Sikander, 'Surviving Whiteness: The Necessity of Black Feminist Theory in a White Academic Workplace'

2nd Supervisor

• Veronica Kimani, 'How Kenyan Women Use Creativity, Technology, and Innovation to Collectively Challenge Patriarchy in Their Work and Home Spaces
• Chisom Ndigwe, Comparison of the “Imu-Ahia” indigenous social responsibility and corporate responsibility disclosures in Subaltern communities of Eastern Nigeria
• Fareeha Akhtar, Urban Pakistani women and social media

Co-supervisor

• Danyaal Abdullah 'Transgender identity in Pakistan: Probing the exclusion of white-collar transgender workers in workplaces' (School of Languages, Linguistics and Film)
• Fatema Bente, Diaspora Consumerism: An ethnography of postcolonial diasporic consumer habits in the UK

External supervisor

• Lynn Adhiambo Obath ''Not Quite There - An index of Black woman in the Arts' (London South Bank University)

PhD Supervision Completions:

• Solomon Akpotozor, 'Social and Environmental Accounting: Industry and Community (Subaltern) Perspectives.' Awarded 2019.

Public Engagement

Sadhvi has a long-standing commitment to third sector organizations and activism. She has been organizing workshops and conference streams that address power relations in her field and beyond since 2005. She is currently working with The Decolonizing Alliance and Building the Anti-Racist Classroom collective - two interconnected projects that seek to address inequalities in the business management field. Previously, she has worked with Mind, Oxfam, Save the Children, the Naz Foundation and CARE International on a variety of issues including: HIV stigma and prevention, LBGTQI rights, child-focussed interventions, mental health issues and monitoring and evaluation. She is an advocate for interventions that engage meaningfully with the lives and experiences of people of colour.

Find out more about Sadhvi's initiatives and projects here:

BreakThrough! (2018 -) The Bangladeshi Women's Careers Group - A student and alumni-led project that develops evidence-based interventions addressing discrimination in universities and the workplace. https://breakthroughbangladeshiwomen.wordpress.com/

The Decolonizing Alliance (2017 -) An online community committed to organizing around issues of inequalities, neo-colonial power relations and material impediments faced by people of colour and Global South scholars. https://decolonizingalliance.wordpress.com/

Building the Anti Racist Classroom (2017-2022) A collective of business management scholars involved in developing strategies that address racism in the business management field. https://barcworkshop.wordpress.com/

The Verbatim Formula (2017-2020) Making listening visible - An AHRC funded collaborative project with Drama. http://www.theverbatimformula.org.uk/

Consultancy

2018-2020 Building the Anti-Racist Collective consultancy branch, BARC Ltd, commissioned with consultancy projects tackling anti-racist pedagogy and decolonizing initiatives with a number of UK HEIs including Kent Law School, University of Roehampton, Middlesex University, Leeds-Beckett University, Loughborough University, University of Bath, and Queen Mary University of London.