The Global Siblings and Inequalities Project is an ongoing research initiative launched by Nazli Kibria in collaboration with students and colleagues from around the world with the aim of bringing global and sociological perspectives to the study of families and siblings. Sibling relationships (or “sibships”) are long lasting family ties with important consequences for health and well-being. Even so, they get somewhat less attention than many other family relationships, such as those between spouses and those between parents and children. When sibships are a topic of investigation, the overwhelming focus has been on psychological dynamics and Eurocentric assumptions and models of family life.
The Project's goal is to explore sibships in different parts of the world and in relation to larger social forces, from the erosion of government supports for needy families to the economic and political displacements that propel migration. Like other family relationships, those between siblings are a potential source of intimacy and support for people. We want to understand the conditions that support this potential as well as those that erode and destroy it. We offer insights into the creative strategies that people use to sustain familial relationships of intimacy and trust in the face of challenges.
("Sisters" by Asma Kibria. All rights reserved).
Since 2019, the project team has been exploring the experiences of adult siblings in India, Sweden, and the United States. We are conducting in-depth, open-ended and anonymized interviews with a diverse range of people, asking them to give us a personal history of their family experiences, from childhood to the present time, with a focus on their relations with siblings. Because of our interest in issues of economic inequality and mobility, we have interviewed siblings who grew up together but whose life trajectories have diverged and created dissimilar economic circumstances and lifestyles for them in the adult years. Whenever it is possible, we talk to more than one sibling from the same family to gather differing sibling perspectives.
Research Team
The Project's goal is to explore sibships in different parts of the world and in relation to larger social forces, from the erosion of government supports for needy families to the economic and political displacements that propel migration. Like other family relationships, those between siblings are a potential source of intimacy and support for people. We want to understand the conditions that support this potential as well as those that erode and destroy it. We offer insights into the creative strategies that people use to sustain familial relationships of intimacy and trust in the face of challenges.
("Sisters" by Asma Kibria. All rights reserved).
Since 2019, the project team has been exploring the experiences of adult siblings in India, Sweden, and the United States. We are conducting in-depth, open-ended and anonymized interviews with a diverse range of people, asking them to give us a personal history of their family experiences, from childhood to the present time, with a focus on their relations with siblings. Because of our interest in issues of economic inequality and mobility, we have interviewed siblings who grew up together but whose life trajectories have diverged and created dissimilar economic circumstances and lifestyles for them in the adult years. Whenever it is possible, we talk to more than one sibling from the same family to gather differing sibling perspectives.
Research Team
Dr Anushyama Mukherjee is Project Director, Global Siblings & Inequality in India. She is currently Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, St. Xavier's College (Autonomous), Kolkata. She completed her doctoral research from the University of Hyderabad, Department of Sociology in 2015 on the topic of the Indian diaspora in the Arab Gulf countries. Dr Mukherjee has published her research widely, in Economic and Political Weekly, Contemporary South Asia, Routledge International, Sociological Bulletin and other outlets.
Selma Hedlund is a PhD candidate in Sociology at Boston University. She has been conducting interviews with siblings in Sweden. Selma is interested in migration, immigration policy and immigrant incorporation, often in relation to race, class and health. She is currently conducting a cross-national comparison on the importance of immigrant physicians to Swedish versus American healthcare delivery
Allison Wigen is a PhD candidate in Sociology at Boston University. She has been conducting interviews with siblings in the US. Her research interests include culture, class, work and occupations, education, family and social theory.
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Wish Pandey is an undergraduate student studying International Relations at Boston University. Wish is conducting interviews with Nepalese siblings in the US and Nepal. She’s interested in researching the role of remittances, the Nepalese diaspora, and the impact of migration on sibling relationships.
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Pamela Das is currently pursuing a post-graduate degree in Social Anthropology at The University of Oslo, Norway. She is specializing in Global political economy. She previously holds a MSc in Sociology from The London School of Economics and Political Science where she focused on gender, development and post-colonial theory.
