Sohini Kar is a socio-cultural anthropologist focusing on economic anthropology of South Asia, particularly urban India. Her work examines the impact of financialization on society. 

Dr Kar’s book, Financializing Poverty: Labor and Risk in Indian Microfinance was awarded the 2020 Bernard Cohn Book Prize sponsored by the Association for Asian Studies. Financializing Poverty ethnographically examines how the emergence of commercial microfinance has allowed financial institutions in the city of Kolkata, India, to capitalize on the poverty of its residents. In addition to her work on microfinance, Dr Kar has written about women in finance, and on India’s financial inclusion policy, and its relation to social welfare programmes. 

She is currently working on two projects: the first focuses on financial activism, and the ways in which activists have sought to influence financial actors with the goal of social change. The second looks at the impact of extreme heat on urban poor workers in India, and the emergent forms of social protections. 

Prior to joining LSE, Dr Kar held a postdoctoral position as Harvard College Fellow in the Department of Anthropology at Harvard University. She holds an MA and PhD in Anthropology from Brown University.