Sumona DasGupta

Sumona DasGupta

Sumona DasGupta is a political scientist and seasoned scholar-practitioner with over 25 years of experience in the field of women, peace, and security. Her work spans across academic research, grassroots facilitation, and mediation practices, with a focus on conflict transformation in South Asia.

She has led and supported numerous peacebuilding initiatives, including:

• Facilitating dialogues across conflict fault lines in Indian Kashmir with Women in Security, Conflict Management and Peace (WISCOMP),

• Evaluating youth, education, women, and cross-border trade interventions in Jammu and Kashmir with Conciliation Resources (CR), and

• Training first-time elected women representatives in conflict resolution at village councils across India with Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA).

More recently, Sumona has engaged in independent peace efforts in Manipur, conducting deep listening sessions with survivors across the ethno-political divide. Her solo visit laid the groundwork for her participation in the first women’s mission of the Peacebuilder Forum India to the region, where she and her colleague visited internally displaced persons (IDPs) and documented women's narratives of survival and resilience. She has since convened a listening circle for displaced individuals from the Manipur conflict in collaboration with the Calcutta Research Group, of which she is a member.

A prolific researcher and writer, Sumona has published extensively on women in borderlands, dialogue processes, and action research in conflict zones. As the former chair of the International Advisory Group of INCORE (University of Ulster), she contributed to a multi-country study on psychosocial approaches to peacebuilding. She integrates trauma-informed practices into all aspects of her mediation, research, and writing.