Cristina-Ioana Dragomir ,
Ph.D.

  • Clinical Associate Professor

Cristina-Ioana Dragomir

Dr. Cristina-Ioana Dragomir is an immigrant and scholar of Social Justice and Human Rights, working on migration, gender and environment. Previously she taught at Queen Mary University of London, Columbia University, Institute for the Study of Human Rights; she served as an Assistant Professor of Political Science at SUNY Oswego, and was a Center for Advanced Study of India 2016-2018 Visiting Scholar at University of Pennsylvania. Additionally, she was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy. She also consults with the United Nations, GIZ, and IOM.

Research Interests
Social justice, migration, gender and environment

Ph.D. – New School for Social Research
M.A. – Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj Napoca, Romania
B.A. – Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj Napoca, Romania


  • NYU Provost Catalyst Award, 2023
  • NYU Liberal Studies Excellency in Research Award, 2023
  • NYU Liberal Studies Dean’s Summer Research Award, Spring 2022
  • Awarded Albert Lepage Center for History in the Public Interest Climate Change in Historical Perspective Grant, Fall 2022
  • Awarded the American Political Science Association, Centennial Research Award, Spring 2022
  • Awarded NYU Liberal Studies Outstanding Service Award, 2022
  • NYU Migration Network Faculty Colloquium for Research Development Award, 2021
  • Queen Mary University of London Research fellowship, 2020
  • “Beyond Borders,” Die Ziet Stiftung/ Bucerius Foundation, 2019

Destabilizing the privilege of the knower to establish forms of solidarity: Reflections on conducting fieldwork with vulnerable communities in India and Romania” in Methodological Innovations, 2020

Nomads, ‘Gypsy’ and Criminals: Criminalization in England and India from the Seventeenth to the Nineteenth century”, Critical Romani Studies (2020)

Gender Practices as Rituals of Knowledge” for International Feminist Journal of Politics (2019)

Vulnerable Populations’ Access to Health Care: A study of the nomadic women “Gypsy’ Narikuravars in Tamil Nadu, India” in International Journal for Romani Studies (2019)

Identity Is Dialogical: The naturalization of immigrants in American military” in Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov Series IV: Philology and Cultural Studies (2018)

Research on the move: revealing power dynamics in the field” (2017) Bulletin Series Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov Series IV: Philology and Cultural Studies. Vol. 10 (59) No. 2 – 2017


“History of Immigrants in the U.S. Military” in Making Modern Immigration, ABC-CLIO (2012)


"Towards a systematic approach: Women, climate change and mobility"  for the Gender Specialist Group (GSG) IUCN Commission on Environmental, Economic & Social Policy (CEESP)

"Thoughts for International Women’s Day 2023"; editor of the “Reimagining Environmental Justice through a Gendered Perspective” ed. for the Gender Specialist Group (GSG) IUCN Commission on Environmental, Economic & Social Policy (CEESP) Commission on Environmental, Economic and Social Policy | IUCN; together with Meher Noshriwani

Onward! Forging the Narikuravars’ Political Path to Scheduled Tribe Status” India in Transition, CASI/ UPenn (2023), picked up by Amar Ujala and Scroll.in, and translated in Bangla, Hindi and Tamil

The Namesake: Migration and Environmental Crises,” Global Politics Unbound, Queen Mary University of London, May 2021

The Narikuravars’ Quest for Political Engagement in Perambalur During COVID-19” India in Transition, CASI/ UPenn (2020)

Scheduled Tribe Status: The Need for Clarification India in Transition, CASI/ UPenn (2017)

Manual for the U.S. State Department on “Immigrant Soldiers” (2009)


Research Centers, Labs, and Groups