Subramaniam to lead Butler Center

Mangala Subramaniam, professor of sociology, has been named the Susan Bulkeley Butler Chair for Leadership Excellence.

In her new role, Subramaniam serves as director of the Susan Bulkeley Butler Center for Leadership Excellence, leading its mission to develop leadership capacity through research, education and collaborations that helps to advance the inclusion of women and broaden their representation in academic administration. The appointment is effective Aug. 14.

The director position is a 50 percent academic-year appointment and is accompanied by an endowed chair. Subramaniam will serve a two-year term, reporting to the Diversity Leadership Team.

Subramaniam joined the Purdue faculty in 2001. She earned her doctorate from the University of Connecticut in 2001.

Subramaniam is a leading scholar in the areas of gender and its intersections with caste and class, social movements, environmental justice and globalization. Her research projects are international in scope and focus on gender politics, particularly the challenges faced by poor and marginalized women to access basic needs. She has published three gender-related books and teaches courses about gender and social movements around the world.

Subramaniam has been director of graduate studies in sociology for the College of Liberal Arts and chair of the college’s Diversity Action Committee. She was a leading member of one of the COACHE working groups convened by the Provost’s Office to analyze data related to the satisfaction of mid-career women faculty at Purdue.

Subramaniam succeeds Patrice Buzzanell, who served as director from February 2015, recently retired from Purdue, and will take a position at University of South Florida beginning in August.