“I view my work as an intersection of social policy and systems of oppression, like patriarchy, capitalism and racism, and how they come together. My degrees in business and public policy give me a macro perspective, but those don’t take individual experience into account. Social work spoke to me because it allows me to see all this; I’m interested in community, social impact and structure.”
Education
- PhD, Social Work, Rutgers University (2013)
- MPP, Public Policy, Australian National University (2006)
- BBA, Business Administration, James Madison University (2003)
Professional/Research Interests
Violence, microfinance, fintech, migration
Biography
Nadine Shaanta Murshid is a scholar, educator and author whose work critically examines the structural production of violence. An associate professor at the University at Buffalo School of Social Work, she employs an interdisciplinary lens — bridging social work, migration studies and transnational feminism — to investigate how systemic inequalities and institutions perpetuate violence.
Her recent book, Intimacies of Violence: Reading Transnational Middle-Class Women in Bangladeshi America (Oxford University Press, 2024), explores how violence is produced in institutional and everyday spaces — from immigration systems to criminal legal systems to the home — revealing its entanglement with love, sex and desire.
Murshid’s early research focused on microfinance, financial inclusion and fintech in Bangladesh, exposing how predatory lending and digital surveillance deepen marginalization. Her current work examines migration, analyzing displacement driven by economic precarity, conflict and need for upward mobility. Advocating for equity-centered policy and grassroots solutions, she challenges systemic violence at its roots.
Through writing, teaching and advocacy, Murshid pushes for a more just world — one that centers community and confronts structural harm.