Dr Cayathri Divakalala is an interdisciplinary sociologist, researcher, educator, and community leader with 25 years of experience across academic, policy, research, and community settings in Aotearoa New Zealand, Sri Lanka, India, Australia, the Netherlands, and the United States.

Her work examines how social, cultural, institutional, and structural conditions shape wellbeing, belonging, inequality, care, violence, migration, and social change. She has particular expertise in qualitative, longitudinal, participatory, and community-enhancing research, with a strong commitment to producing knowledge that is academically rigorous, socially accountable, and useful to communities and decision-makers.

Dr Divakalala’s scholarship is grounded in intersectional, feminist, decolonial, and Global South perspectives. Her doctoral research developed the concept of intersectional subaltern activist consciousness to explore how activists living across multiple forms of marginalisation develop political consciousness, sustain resistance, and reimagine social activism. Her wider research addresses ethnic and inter-ethnic racism, LGBTQIA+ South Asian experiences, migrant belonging, family and sexual violence prevention, gender justice, post-conflict recovery, ageing, mental health, social connectedness, and culturally responsive institutional change.

She is an Honorary Research Associate in Political Science and Public Policy at the University of Waikato, currently working with Professor Priya Kurian, Professor Debashish Munshi, and Associate Professor Patrick Barrett on sustainable citizenship, migration, sex workers’ rights, youth activism, and violence prevention. She is also the co-founder and Research Lead of Adhikaar Aotearoa, where she leads community-based research and evidence-informed advocacy concerning LGBTQIA+ people of colour.

Dr Divakalala has advised government agencies and public institutions, including the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, Te Puna Aonui, the Ministry of Social Development, New Zealand Police, the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission, and the Accident Compensation Corporation. Across her academic and community roles, she works to bridge university-based scholarship and community knowledge, treating both as vital sites of intellectual and social contribution.