In July 2022, she was confirmed as the distinguished research professorship in the Department of Politics and International Relations at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London.[3] She took up her post at SOAS in September 2022.
Shirin M. Rai was born in New Delhi, India and attended Modern School. After securing her BA at Hindu College, Delhi University and MA in the Department of Political Science, Delhi University, India, she carried out her doctoral research on Chinese liberalisation and educational reforms at Christ’s College and Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, University of Cambridge.
Rai joined the Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Warwick as the first woman to be appointed as a full-time lecturer, in 1989 and served there until 2022. She is now distinguished research professor in SOAS, Department of Politics and International Studies.
Rai is honorary professor in the Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Warwick, visiting professor (2021 -) at the Department of Gender Studies at LSE, and an adjunct professor at Monash University.
Shirin M. Rai is an interdisciplinary scholar and has written extensively on issues of gender, governance and development, and politics and performance. She is the co/author of 5 monographs, has co/edited 15 volumes and has written numerous articles in high impact journals.
Rai has recently been working on issues of gendered care and work and the costs of this care work, which she (together with Catherine Hoskyns and Dania Thomas) theorised as ‘depletion through social reproduction’.[4] She is a Co-Investigator for the UKRI-funded Consortium on Practices for Wellbeing and Resilience in Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Families and Communities and is using the depletion framework to study the impact of racism during COVID-19, on Care, Caring and Carers in the Midlands.[5]
Rai has also developed an interdisciplinary framework across the social sciences/humanities boundaries - politics and performance[6] - to study politics and political institutions. This emerged out of Rai’s Leverhulme Trust programme on Gendered Ceremony and Ritual in Parliament (2007–2011), of which she was director.[7] Building on this work Rai became interested in exploring the nature of performance in/as politics. Her recent books in this field include Performing Representation,[8] a commentary on women MPs in the Indian Parliament, as well as co-edited the OUP Handbook of Politics and Performance.[9]
Rai’s work within feminist political economy examines gendered regimes of work and survival under globalisation, which include privatisation of natural resources, and the changing nature of work. Her books in this field are Gender and the Political Economy of Development (2002),[10]Gender Politics of Development (2008)[11] and New Frontiers in Feminist Political Economy (ed, with Georgina Waylen).[12] She has also worked on questions of gender relations and their relationships to shifting patterns of economic and political governance – see Global Governance: Feminist Perspectives (2008).[13]
Her earlier work also focused strongly on democratisation. In 2000 she edited International Perspectives on Gender and Democratization.[14] As the acting director of the Centre for the Study of Democratisation at the University of Warwick, she (with Wyn Grant) launched a book series with Manchester University Press on Perspectives on Democratisation, which was re-launched under a new title, Perspectives on Democratic Practice, in 2007.[15] Rai has also served on the Editorial Board of the journal Democratization.
Shirin M. Rai is a member of various professional societies such as the Political Studies Association, British International Studies Association and International Studies Association and has served on the Governing Council of the International Studies Association (2009–2011). She has served as co-Editor of the journal Social Politics, and is member of the editorial boards of publications such as: Indian Journal of Gender Studies, International Feminist Journal of Politics, Global Ethics and Review of International Studies.
In 2017, the Political Studies Association named its PhD dissertation prize for international relations the Shirin M. Rai prize in recognition of her contributions to the discipline of feminist international relations and international political economy.[18]
Rai, Shirin (1991). Resistance and reaction: university politics in post-Mao China. Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire New York, New York: Harvester Wheatsheaf St. Martin's Press. ISBN9780312071875.
Rai, Shirin; Christiansen, Flemming (1996). Chinese politics and society : an introduction. London New York: Prentice Hall/Harvester Wheatsheaf. ISBN9780133546569.
Rai, Shirin (2002). Gender and the political economy of development: from nationalism to globalization. Malden, Massachusetts: Polity Press. ISBN9780745614915.
Rai, Shirin M. (2008). The gender politics of development essays in hope and despair. New Delhi London New York New York: Zed Books. ISBN9781842778388.
Rai, Shirin M; Spary, Carole (2019). Performing Representation: Women Members in the Indian Parliament. OUP.
Rai, Shirin; Griffin, Gabriele; Roseneil, Sasha; Hester, Marianne (1994). Stirring it: challenges for feminism. London Bristol, Pennsylvania: Taylor & Francis. ISBN9780748402137.
Rai, Shirin; Lievesley, Geraldine (1996). Women and the state: international perspectives. London Bristol, Pennysylvania: Taylor & Francis. ISBN9780748403615.
Rai, Shirin; Fine, Robert (1997). Civil society: democratic perspectives. London Portland, Oregon: F. Cass. ISBN9780714643137.
Rai, Shirin (2000). International perspectives on gender and democratisation. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN9780312232108.
Rai, Shirin; Cohen, Robin (2000). Global social movements. London New Brunswick, New Jersey Somerset, New Jersey: Athlone Press / Transaction Publishers. ISBN9780485006155.
Rai, Shirin; Parpart, Jane; Staudt, Kathleen A. (2003). Rethinking empowerment gender and development in a global/local world. London New York: Routledge. ISBN9780415277693.
Rai, Shirin; Newell, Peter; Scott, Andrew (2002). Development and the challenge of globalization. London: ITDG. ISBN9781853394928.
Rai, Shirin (2003). Mainstreaming gender, democratizing the state? Institutional mechanisms for the advancement of women. Manchester New York: Manchester University Press. ISBN9780719059780.
Rai, Shirin; Waylen, Georgina (2008). Global governance: feminist perspectives. Basingstoke New York: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN9780230537040.
The OUP Handbook of Performance and Politics (lead editor, with Milija Gluhovic, Silvija Jestrovic and Michael Saward), New York, Oxford University Press, 2020
The Grammar of Performance and Politics (with Janelle Reinelt), London, Routledge, 2015 (Interventions Series)
New Frontiers in Feminist Political Economy (with Georgina Waylen) Routledge IAFFE Advances in Feminist Economics, London, Routledge, 2014
Democracy in Practice: Ceremony and Ritual in Parliaments (eds. with Rachel E. Johnson), Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2014
Ceremony and Ritual in Parliament, London: Routledge, 2010
Global Governance: Feminist Perspectives (eds. With Georgina Waylen) London, Palgrave Macmillan, 2008 ISBN 0230537049; ISBN 978-0230537040
Rai, Shirin M. (February 1993). "Gender, education and employment in Post-Mao China: issues in modernisation". China Report. 29 (1): 1–14. doi:10.1177/000944559302900101. S2CID153572383.
Rai, Shirin M. (January 2003). "Networking across borders: South Asian Research Network (SARN) on gender, law and governance". Global Networks. 3 (1): 59–74. doi:10.1111/1471-0374.00050.
Rai, Shirin M.; Baxi, Pratiksha; Ali, Shaheen Sardar (2006). "Legacies of common law: 'crimes of honour' in India and Pakistan". Third World Quarterly. 27 (7): 1239–1253. doi:10.1080/01436590600933404. S2CID144689933.
Rai, Shirin M. (September 2010). "Analysing ceremony and ritual in parliament". The Journal of Legislative Studies. 16 (3): 284–297. doi:10.1080/13572334.2010.498098. S2CID144015579.
From Depletion to Regeneration: Addressing Structural and Physical Violence in Post-Conflict Economies (2020)
Feminist everyday political economy: Space, time, and violence (2019),
SDG 8: Decent work and economic growth- A gendered analysis (with Benjamin D. Brown and Kanchana N. Ruwanpura) (2019) World Development 113, 368–380
Upendra Baxi: feminism, law, and the human (2018), Jindal Global Law Review, Volume 9 Number 2 DOI 10.1007/s41020-018-0078-y
Feminist everyday political economy: Space, time, and violence (with Juanita Elias) (2018), Review of International Studies doi:10.1017/S0260210518000323
The Good Life and the Bad: The Dialectics of Solidarity (March 2018) Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society Volume 25, Issue 1 Pages 1–19
Recognising the full costs of care? The Gendered Politics of Compensation for families in South Africa’s silicosis class action (with Beth Goldblatt) (November 2017), Social and Legal Studies DOI: 10.1177/0964663917739455
‘Political Performance: A Framework for Analyzing Democratic Politics’ (2014)
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