Anindya Kundu is an award-winning author and expert on student achievement, cultural competency in schools and workplaces, and closing opportunity gaps.
Visit Anindya Kundu's research profile
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All students can succeed if provided collective support systems and opportunities. I take a deeper look at the personal, social and institutional challenges that keep students from thriving in the United States and show how closing this "opportunity gap" means valuing public education for what it really is: the greatest investment in our collective future.
Grit and stick-to-itiveness aren't enough for students to succeed. They also need to develop their agency, or their capacity to overcome obstacles and navigate the system. I share hopeful stories of students who have defied expectations in the face of personal, social and institutional challenges.
Dr. Kundu is an assistant professor of educational leadership. He is a sociologist who researches the social and cultural contexts that foster student agency and the achievement of students with social and economic disadvantages. Kundu studies how students and professionals navigate personal, social and institutional challenges and pathways to opportunity, in K through Workforce settings.
In 2020, Kundu's book, The Power of Student Agency, was published by Teachers College Press and endorsed by Dr. Pedro Noguera and Dr. Angela Duckworth, among other influential scholars and practitioners. It was a 2021 Association of American Publishers PROSE Award (Professional and Scholarly Excellence) Finalist.
From 2019 to 2021 Kundu led a research team at the Labor Market Information Service, within The Graduate Center, CUNY. He has also remained a member of the Career and Technical Advisory Council for The NYC Department of Education. Kundu received his Ph.D. from NYU in Sociology of Education and served as a Postdoctoral Scholar for the NYU Administration, Leadership, and Technology Department, leading qualitative research around a workforce development initiative in the Bronx. Kundu taught several education courses, receiving the NYU "Outstanding Doctoral Teaching Award."
In addition to maintaining an active scholarly publication agenda, Kundu enjoys connecting research to practice to inform public discourse. He has given two TED Talks, including the fifth-most viewed TED talk of 2020.
To help pay his bills in graduate school, Anindya Kundu was an extra on television shows "Girls" and "Master of None."
Anindya Kundu's "The Power of Student Agency" explores how people can fight against inequalities in the American educational system by harnessing student agency — each person's unique capacity for positive change.
To book this speaker or request more information, please email chcalvo@fiu.edu
