Desis Balling through Race and Masculinity: South Asian American Identity Formation in Ethnic Basketball Leagues

Stanley Thangaraj has a PhD in Socio-Cultural Anthropology from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.  He is the author of Desi Hoop Dreams: Pickup Basketball and the Making of Asian American Masculinity (New York University Press, 2015) and co-editor of Asian American Sporting Cultures (New York University Press, 2016) and Sport and South Asian Diasporas (Routledge, 2014).  He has published in Ethnic and Racial Studies, International Review for the Sociology of Sport, South Asian Popular Culture, and Amerasia.  Stanley Thangaraj’s research interests are at the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, class, and citizenship.  He is interested in exploring how South Asian American and refugee Kurdish American communities, during this time of the “global war on terror,” manage citizenship and belonging both in their diasporic communities and in the U.S. south.  Stanley Thangaraj has also coached high school and collegiate sports and has a passion for working with young people, underrepresented communities, and marginalized groups.