Dr Garima Sarkar is a political scientist specializing in gender and politics, party systems, and the formal and informal dynamics of candidate selection in South and Southeast Asia. She holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from McMaster University, where her dissertation, Barriers to Women in Politics: Candidate Selection and Informal Party Politics in India, examined how party institutions and informal practices shape women’s access to political candidacy. She is currently developing this research into a book with Oxford University Press South Asia series. Her research interests include gender and party politics, political recruitment, informal institutions, electoral systems, comparative public policy, ethnic politics, and representational politics. She has contributed to major research initiatives, including the SSHRC-funded Ethnic Quota Project, studies on democratic backsliding in Asia, and comparative research on gender quotas in South and Southeast Asia. Currently, she teaches at O.P. Jindal Global University, where she offers courses on Comparative Democratization, Globalization and World Order, Comparative Party Systems, and Elections and Identity: Comparative Perspectives. In addition, she serves as the Co-Director of the Centre for Analytical Research and Engagement (CARE), a research Centre housed at her current school, where she works as a Principal PI on multiple projects focused on India’s party politics and electoral campaigns. With over 12 years of teaching and research experience in India and Canada, her work bridges empirical research, policy analysis, and academic teaching, with a focus on understanding how institutions and political behaviour shape representation and how reforms can foster more inclusive political systems.
