Prema Kurien

Birth and education Prema Kurien was born in Kerala, India. She attended the Women's Christian College, Chennai, earning a BA in psychology in 1983, and the Delhi School of Economics, Delhi, where she gained an MA degree in sociology in 1986. After moving to the United States, she attended Brown University, earning M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in sociology in 1989 and 1993, respectively.

Career Kurien was visiting assistant professor at the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Knox College, from 1992 to 1994, then assistant professor at the Department of Sociology and Director of the Human Diversity Program at Chapman University from 1994 to 1995. From 1995 to 2003 she was assistant professor at the Department of Sociology, University of Southern California, then obtained her present position of associate professor in the Department of Sociology of Syracuse University. She was the president of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion in 2021.

In 2022, Kurian was named the director for the South Asia Center (SAC) in the Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs.

In 2024, she was named the Daicoff Faculty Scholar at Maxwell.

Publications Kurien was editor of a special issue of the International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, 2004, on The Impact of Immigrants on American Institutions. She has published many articles in peer-reviewed journals. Prema Kurien's books are:

Her Kaleidoscopic Ethnicity is primarily an anthropological work. It investigates the ways in which Malayali migrants from three different Kerala communities handle the opportunities and challenges of working in the Gulf. Three villages are studied, one predominantly Muslim, one Hindu and one Christian. She shows how the different cultures of these three villages were shaped by their historical experience, and how they profoundly influenced the way in which the villagers coped with the new challenges.

In A Place at the Multicultural Table Kurien reviews the ways in which Hindu American organizations are trying to address the question of cultural identity for Hindu Americans, including immigrants and those born in the US. She looks at the emerging "American Hinduism", an organized, standardized and politicized version of the more diverse Hinduism of India. Kurien makes the point that most American Hindus have no connection to the small group of ideologues who lead Hindutva-related organisations in the US, but few actively oppose the Hindutva movement. The vast majority are silent, falling between the extremes.