Sumrin Kalia is a researcher and lecturer for civil society organizations at Department of Management at FU Berlin’s School of Business and Economics. Before joining the department in 2023, Sumrin was a post-doctoral fellow at the Institute for Global Prosperity at University College London (2021-2023). Sumrin has studied Social Policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science and Public Administration at University of Karachi, Pakistan. She completed her PhD in Political Science from Freie Universität Berlin in 2021 for which she was awarded the prestigious DAAD doctoral scholarship.

Sumrin’s research examines civil society and political culture from a comparative, socio-historical perspective. She combines ethnographic insights and qualitative data with comparative case study methodology to understand how organizational dynamics within the civil society respond to, and influence, political and economic institutions. Her scholarship brings organizational theories in dialogue with Area Studies literature, political sociology, and institutional theory. Her current research project is a cross-national comparative study exploring conditions that lead to inclusive, cohesive orientations in civil society organizations. Additionally, she is working on her book project which studies the interaction between religious organizations and populism in Pakistan. 

She is co-editor of the book Local Responses to Global Challenges in Southeast Asia.  Her work has been published in the International Journal of Public Administration, Religion, State & Society, and South Asia Chronicle and can be accessed here . She has also contributed to developmental policy analysis and writes opinion pieces on Pakistan at Seriously different.

CONTACT

Dr. Sumrin Kalia
Lecturer/Researcher
Freie Universität Berlin
Department of Management
School of Business and Economics

Garystr. 21
Room 335
14195 Berlin

sumrin.kalia@fu-berlin.de
www.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de

Office Hours:
By appointment (by Email)