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Dr. Christopher Coley

Head of Programme, Social Data Science & Policy | Assistant Professor, School of Social & Behavioural Sciences, Faridabad

Qualification: BA, BS, MA, Ph.D
Christopher@dl.amrita.edu
Research Interest: Sustainable Development Policy, Implementation Sciences & Impact Research, Gender Equality and Critical Masculinities, Transformation and Social Change Theories

Bio

Dr. Coley currently the Head of Program for the newly established M.Sc. in Social Data Science & Policy department at Amrita University, Faridabad, India under the Amrita University School of Social & Behavioural Sciences. His role encompasses administration, teaching and research, but his primary objective is to explore the intersections of gender equality and sustainable development in the local, national, and global contexts. His personal research interests include understanding critical masculinities as they relate to women’s empowerment, and the impacts of multi-dimensional poverty on individual and community resilience. He is also an a Researcher and Program Manager at Amrita’s AMMACHI Labs and the Center for Women’s Empowerment & Gender Equality in Kerala, India where he obtained his doctorate. Apart from regular teaching and student guidance, his responsibilities include social science research in sustainable development, grant writing, monitoring and evaluation tool development, programming support, and research publications. The Director of the Research Center where he serves holds the UNESCO Chair in Gender Equality, and the overarching research goal is to develop a “Vulnerability Map” of a population that can holistically take account of a communities demographics, needs, resources/infrastructure, and social issues in order to produce the most salient solutions for policy and intervention.Education

  • BA in Philosophy
    Seattle University
  • BS in Psychology 
    Seattle University
  • MA in Applied Ethics, Philosophy
    Colorado State University
Publications

Journal Article

Year : 2023

Men’s experience of women’s empowerment and gender equality: A phenomenological study in Kerala, India

Cite this Research Publication : Coley, C., Sheshadri, S., Devanathan, S. (2023). Men’s experience of women’s empowerment and gender equality: A phenomenological study in Kerala, India. Global Social Welfare, 10, 105-116. DOI: 10.1007/s40609-022-00262-7.

Year : 2021

Holding agriculture accountable: Moral obligations in the dairy industry

Cite this Research Publication : Coley, C. (2011). Holding agriculture accountable: Moral obligations in the dairy industry (Masters Thesis, Colorado State University). DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.32984.52481

Year : 2020

Contextualizing women’s empowerment frameworks with an emphasis on social support: A study in rural, South India

Cite this Research Publication : Coley, C., Sheshadri, S., Devanathan, S., Bhavani, R.R. (2021). Contextualizing women's empowerment frameworks with an emphasis on social support: A study in rural, South India. Community, Work, & Family. DOI: 10.1080/13668803.2021.1879021

Year : 2020

Towards synergistic women’s empowerment-transformative learning framework for TVET in rural India

Cite this Research Publication : S. Sheshadri, Coley, C., Devanathan, S., and Rao R. Bhavani, “Towards synergistic women’s empowerment-transformative learning framework for TVET in rural India”, Journal of Vocational Education & Training 1-23., 2020.

Publisher : Journal of Vocational Education & Training

Year : 2020

Vulnerability mapping: A conceptual framework towards a context-based approach to women’s empowerment

Cite this Research Publication : C. M. Gressel, Rashed T., Maciuika, L. Aswati, Sheshadri, S., Coley, C., Kongeseri, S., and Rao R. Bhavani, “Vulnerability mapping: A conceptual framework towards a context-based approach to women’s empowerment”, World Development Perspectives, 100245., 2020.

Publisher : World Development Perspectives

Year : 2019

Design of a Collaborative Tabletop Game for Civic Engagement: Serious Games in Rural India

Cite this Research Publication : Kongeseri S., Coley C. (2019) Design of a Collaborative Tabletop Game for Civic Engagement: Serious Games in Rural India. In: Zagalo N., Veloso A., Costa L., Mealha Ó. (eds) Videogame Sciences and Arts. VJ 2019. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 1164. Springer, Cham. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-37983-4_7

Publisher : Springer

Year : 2018

Games for Community Development and Problem Solving: A Multi-Site Case Study

Cite this Research Publication :
S. Kongeseri, Sheshadri, S., Coley, C., Muir, A., and Rao R. Bhavani, “Games for Community Development and Problem Solving: A Multi-Site Case Study”, Advanced Science Letters, vol. 24, pp. 2358–2361, 2018

Publisher : Advanced Science Letters

Conference Paper

Year : 2015

Training India’s first female toilet builders: An argument for improving sanitation through women empowerment and social inclusion

Cite this Research Publication : C. Coley, Sheshadri, S., and Rao R. Bhavani, “Training India’s first female toilet builders: An argument for improving sanitation through women empowerment and social inclusion”, in 2015 International Conference on Sustainable Development (ICSD), 2015.

Publisher : 2015 International Conference on Sustainable Development

Conference Proceedings

Year : 2023

Uncovering subtle biases by exploring multidimensional attitudes towards gender in the South Indian context

Cite this Research Publication : Gressel, C.M., Coley, C., Sheshadri, S. Anto, A., Aparna J, Anil, A. (2023). Uncovering subtle biases by exploring multidimensional attitudes towards gender in the South Indian context. Proceedings of The 9th International Conference on New Findings in Humanities and Social Sciences, July 2023. DOI: 10.33422/9th.hsconf.2023.07.120

Book

Year : 2022

The braided river: the universe of Indian women in science

Cite this Research Publication : Coley, C., Gressel, C.M., Dhillon, A., Shukla, T., Sheshadri, S., Pandey, N., Kumar, G., Bhavani, R.R. (2022). A Braided River: The Universe of Indian Women in Science. UNESCO New Delhi.

Year : 2021

Transforming MENtalities: gender equality and masculinities in India

Cite this Research Publication : Coley, C., Gressel, C.M., Bhavani, R.R. (2021). Transforming MENtalities: Gender equality and masculinities in India. UNESCO New Delhi.

Research Area

Sustainable Development, Gender Equality, Transformation and Social Change Theories, Education Technologies, and Implementation Sciences. Specifically in Gender Equality, he has a deep interest in exploring the connections between a man’s reaction to women’s empowerment programs and his response to the shift in power dynamics that accompanies women empowerment as a potential source of aid or conflict for WE projects. Instances of violence, conflict, or lack of project sustainability often follow WE projects because of male resistance. In light of this, it is important to study what the factors are (cultural, psychological, value, situational, etc.) that contribute to Indian men’s response to WE programs in rural India.

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