to view Nafisa Tanjeem’s personal website.
Nafisa’s research and teaching interests include transnational, postcolonial, and decolonial feminisms; critical race theory; globalization and feminist politics; critical community engagement; nonprofit industrial complex; critical university studies; and transnational social justice movements with a specific focus on the United States and South Asia.
Before joining 91ֿ, Nafisa taught at Lesley University, Rutgers University, the University of Toronto, and the University of Dhaka.
Nafisa has been actively involved in community organizing and social justice activism. She is an organizer of the (“Woman” in Bangla) network and – both of whom are voluntary, grassroots, and organic networks advocating for feminist solidarity and organizing in Bangladesh.
In the past, she was a co-chief steward of the core faculty union of Lesley University, which was a part of SEIU Local 509. She organized with the Rutgers University chapter of United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) on the garment worker solidarity campaign in New Jersey. She also worked as a Community Organizer and Events Coordinator with the Council of Agencies Serving South Asians (CASSA) on poverty reduction, gender equity, and youth engagement among South Asian immigrant communities in Toronto, Canada.
Nafisa recognizes the value of public scholarship in engaging and circulating academic research with the community. Her work has been published on many local and international platforms, such as ,,,,,, and . She was the winner of the 2025 “” of the International Association for Research on Service Learning and Community Engagement (IARSLCE).
Tanjeem, Nafisa. Can Workers of the World Unite? A Transnational Feminist Ethnography of Labor Organizing Across the Apparel Supply Chain (In progress).
This book project examines transnational labor activism and activist discourses developed in relation to the deadliest garment industrial disaster in human history, the 2013 collapse of Rana Plaza – a factory building housing five garment factories in Savar, Bangladesh, and continued until the global COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. It examines the gendered, racialized, classed, and (trans)national trajectory of labor organizing around the Accord, the Alliance, and the COVID-19 pandemic proposing diverging concepts of safety, security, and labor rights, and the challenges that arise when these concepts clash in various local, global, physical, and virtual organizing spaces. Drawing on seven-year-long physical and digital ethnographic observations and interviews, this project specifically investigates what it means for grassroots labor organizers in the Global South, who are often restricted by national borders and neoliberal socio-economic-political forces, to engage in transnational solidarity building.
Tanjeem, Nafisa Nipun, and Michael J. Illuzzi. “Does Global Have to Be ‘Elsewhere’? Challenging the Dichotomy between “the University” and “the Community” in International Service-Learning and Community Engagement.” Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning. (Under review)
Illuzzi, Michael J., and Nafisa Nipun Tanjeem. 2025. “” Radical Teacher 132.
Tanjeem, Nafisa, and Michael Illuzzi. 2022. “.” Engaged Scholar Journal: Community-Engaged Research, Teaching, and Learning 8 (2): 110–19.
Rodgers, Yana van der Meulen, Nafisa Tanjeem, and Nidhiya Menon. 2024. “.” In Spatial Spillovers: Viewpoints from Asia, edited by Amitrajeet Batabyal, Yoshiro Higano, and Peter Nijkamp. Cham, Switzerland: Springer.
Tanjeem, Nafisa, and Rawshan E. Fatima. 2023. “.” In Young People Shaping Democratic Politics: Interrogating Inclusion, Mobilising Education, edited by Ian Rivers and C. Laura Lovin, 55–81. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.
Tanjeem, Nafisa. 2022. “.” In Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures (Supplement XXIII), edited by Joseph Suad. Leiden and Boston: BRILL.
Tanjeem, Nafisa. 2021. “.” In The Routledge Companion to Fashion Studies, edited by Eugenia Paulicelli, Elizabeth Wissinger, and Veronica Manlow, 259–68. Oxon and New York: Routledge.
Rodgers, Yana, and Nafisa Tanjeem. 2021. “.” In , edited by Katherine Palmer Kaup, 353-384. Bounder and London: Lynne Rienner Publishers.
Tanjeem, Nafisa and Aditi Sabur. 2018. “.” In Education in South Asia and the Indian Ocean Islands, edited by Debotri Dhar and Hema Letchamanan, 29-46. London and New York: Bloomsbury Publishing.
Tanjeem, Nafisa. 2016. “.” In Revealing Gender Inequalities and Perceptions in South Asian Countries through Discourse Analysis, edited by Nazmunnessa Mahtab, Sara Parker, Farah Kabir, Tania Haque, Aditi Sabur and Abu Saleh Mohammad Sowad, 57-79. USA: Information Science Reference (IGI Global).
Tanjeem, Nafisa. 2012. “.” In Strangers in New Homelands: The Social Deconstruction and Reconstruction of “Home” among Immigrants in the Diaspora, edited by Michael Baffoe, Maria Cheung, Lewis Asimeng-Boahene and Buster Ogbuagu, 78-90. UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Tanjeem, Nafisa and Ishrat Khan. 2010. Impact of Hegemonic Masculinity at Workplace: An Analysis of Challenges Faced by Middle-Class Working Women in Bangladesh. Dhaka: University of Dhaka, Department of Women and Gender Studies – Working Paper Series.
Tanjeem, Nafisa Nipun. 2026. “.” Jamhoor, February 14.
Tanjeem, Nafisa. 2022. “.” Jamhoor, no. 7 (August).
Tanjeem, Nafisa. 2023. “.’ĝ Journal of Bangladesh Studies 25 (1): 48–50.
Tanjeem, Nafisa. 2020. “.” South Asian Review, July, 1–4.
Tanjeem, Nafisa. “A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words.” In Eye on the Ball, edited by Yousuf Rezaur Rahman. USA: Waibee LLC.
Tanjeem, Nafisa Nipun. 2026. “.” Common Dreams, July 21.
Tanjeem, Nafisa Nipun. 2026. “.” The New Age, March 8.
Tanjeem, Nafisa Nipun. 2025. “.” The New Age, May 26.
Tanjeem, Nafisa Nipun. 2025. “.” Common Dreams. March 10.
Tanjeem, Nafisa Nipun. 2024. “ The New Age. October 10.
Tanjeem, Nafisa Nipun. 2024. “,” The Daily Star. October 5.
Tanjeem, Nafisa Nipun. 2024. “.” The Daily Star. May 18.
Tanjeem, Nafisa Nipun. 2024. “.” The New Age, March 8.
Tanjeem, Nafisa. 2023. “.” The New Age. September 7.
Tanjeem, Nafisa. 2023. “.” The New Age. August 11.
Tanjeem, Nafisa. 2023. “.” The Daily Star. May 14.
Tanjeem, Nafisa. 2023. “.” The Daily Star. March 28.
Tanjeem, Nafisa, and Muktasree Chakma. 2023. “.” The Daily Star. March 23.
Tanjeem, Nafisa. 2023. “.” The New Age, March 7.
Tanjeem, Nafisa. 2023. “.” The Daily Star, February 27.
Tanjeem, Nafisa. 2022. “.” The New Age. October 13.
Tanjeem, Nafisa. 2022. The Daily Star. April 12.
Tanjeem, Nafisa. 2021. “.” The New Age. October 15.
Tanjeem, Nafisa. 2021. “.” Common Dreams. April 8.
Tanjeem, Nafisa. 2021. “.” The New Age, March 26.
Tanjeem, Nafisa. 2020. “.” The Daily Star. November 28.
Tanjeem, Nafisa. 2020. “.” The New Age. November 17.
Tanjeem, Nafisa. 2020. “” The New Age. October 15.
Tanjeem, Nafisa. 2020. “.” The Daily Star. September 17.
Tanjeem, Nafisa, and Michael J. Illuzzi. 2020. “.” Common Dreams. August 7.
Tanjeem, Nafisa. 2020. “.” Common Dreams. July 26.
Tanjeem, Nafisa. 2020. “.” Common Dreams. July 16.
Ahmed, Syed Ishtiaque, Nafisa Tanjeem, Ayesha Sania, and Md Ruhul Amin. 2020. “.” The Daily Star, May 10.
Tanjeem, Nafisa. 2020. “.” The New Age, May 5.
Tanjeem, Nafisa. 2020. “.” The New Age, April 14.
Tanjeem, Nafisa. 2017. “.” The Daily Star, April 21.
Tanjeem, Nafisa. 2023. “ [Coke Studio Bangla: A Revolution of Minoritized Representation?].” Deutsche Welle (DW). June 16, 2023.
Tanjeem, Nafisa. 2023. “ [Topic: Motherhood, Miscarriage, and Some of Our Hypocrisies].” ঠোঁটকাটা [Thotkata]. May 15, 2023.
Tanjeem, Nafisa. 2022. “? [Scientific Research on Ekattor TV: Should We Ignore the Intimate Relationship between the State, Corporations, and the Media?]” ঠোঁটকাটা [Thotkata]. November 6, 2022.
Tanjeem, Nafisa. 2022. “ [Road Safety Protest and the Future of Student Movement].” Prothom Alo. August 7, 2022.
Tanjeem, Nafisa. 2022. “ [The Economic and Sexual History and Politics of Garment Labor Organizing in Bangladesh] – Part I.” Bama, March 2, 2022.
Tanjeem, Nafisa. 2020. “ [Coronavirus, the middle class, and our domestic workers].” ঠোঁটকাটা ڰճdzٰ첹ٲ.October 25, 2020.
Tanjeem, Nafisa. 2020. “ [Questions beyond Choice, Motherhood, and Borkha].” The Daily Star Bangla. September 19, 2020.
Tanjeem, Nafisa. 2020. “ [ Rana Plaza to COVID-19: What the Spotlight of Transnational Labor Movement Missed].” ঠোঁটকাটা [Thotkata], May 8, 2020.
Tanjeem, Nafisa. 2020. “ [Coronavirus, Disaster Capitalism, and Our Garment Workers].” ঠোঁটকাটাڰճdzٰ첹ٲ, April 13, 2020.
Tanjeem, Nafisa. 2015. “ [Nafisa on the Question of Feminism].” ঠোঁটকাটাڰճdzٰ첹ٲ, September 29, 2015.
Tanjeem, Nafisa. 2015. “ [From Harkin’s Bill to Accord and Alliance: Limitations of Corporation-Centric Labor Movements].” ঠোঁটকাটাڰճdzٰ첹ٲ, June 10, 2015.
Tanjeem, Nafisa. 2015. “ [Alliance for Bangladesh Workers Safety: A New Addition to Corporate Governance in the Garment Industry].” ঠোঁটকাটাڰճdzٰ첹ٲ, May 15, 2015.
Tanjeem, Nafisa. 2015. “ [Accord Is Not a Magic Bullet: Recent Corporate Codes for Improvement of the Garment Industry in Bangladesh].” ঠোঁটকাটাڰճdzٰ첹ٲ, May 9, 2015.
Tanjeem, Nafisa. 2015. “ [The Politics of Ending Child Labor in the Garment Industry: The Corporation-Centric Labor Rights Organizing in the 1990s].” ঠোঁটকাটাڰճdzٰ첹ٲ, April 30, 2015.
