Anjali Shanmugam graduated with a Bachelor of Global and International Studies (with a specialization in Global Development) from Carleton University. During her time at Carleton University, Anjali gained knowledge in the areas of global development, economic development, migration and transnationalism. During her undergraduate degree, Anjali volunteered with a team of students from Carleton University and Cuso International to research solutions on climate change, food security and public health in a community in Lima, Peru. Anjali’s research focused on water scarcity, the effects of open-pit mining in Lima and the resulting health and environmental impact on the people. This project allowed the team to collectively research and establish creative mitigation strategies that would benefit the community. In her final year at Carleton University, Anjali conducted ethnographic fieldwork on the topic of Being Up-rooted and Replanted: International Adoptees Experience of Belonging, Inclusion and Exclusion in Canada, and presented at the 13th Inquiry at Queens University Undergraduate Research Conference.

Anjali’s professional memberships with STAND (Students Taking Action Now: Darfur) Canada, the North American Community Uniting for Equity (NAC:UE), and the World Council of Curriculum and Instruction: North American Chapter (WCCI:NAC, a UN sponsored organization) has allowed her to understand the world through a lens that highlights the importance of social justice and creating an inclusive society. In 2015 Anjali presented a paper at the World Council of Curriculum and Instruction: North American Chapter Conference on the topic of Gender Inequality, and ‘Son Culture’ in India. Recently, Anjali presented a paper on ‘Shadeism’ (2017), an insidious form of racism that especially women of South Asia and the South Asian diaspora encounter across societies.

While at Balsillie School of International Affairs, Anjali hopes to develop her understanding on the movement of peoples across geographies, the barriers that migrants encounter, and gender inequality, for instance, the access to health rights and property rights of women.