Last, but not least, it is our distinct pleasure to introduce Rafia Akter - a first year PhD graduate student in our department. Rafia's research spans health, demography, crime and deviance, and race and ethnicity. She focuses on women’s and adolescent sexual and reproductive health, parental communication, and health disparities among minority populations. Rafia earned her MA in Sociology from Texas Tech University, where she examined non-residential biological father communication and adolescents’ risky sexual behavior. She holds both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in Sociology from the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Her work includes peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, and conference presentations on topics such as sexually transmitted diseases, demography, contraceptive use, gender-based violence, domestic minor sex trafficking, and the impact of incarceration on youth. Her article from 2020 explores the contraceptive use among women in slums of Dhaka City, another article from 2022 investigates the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases among women in urban slums. In 2024, Rafia published a book chapter on domestic minor sex trafficking in the Global North and in 2025 she published a co-authored book chapter on the intersection of migration and geopolitics between Taiwan, China and the United States.
Rafia has teaching experience in both Bangladesh and the United States.
We are absolutely thrilled to welcome Rafia to our department!