Associate Professor, School of Social Work

Email

Preferred: soma.sen@sjsu.edu

Telephone

Preferred: (408) 924-5851

Education

• Doctor of Philosophy, Social Work, Arizona St Univ, 2007
• Master of Social Work, Univ Of Minnesota Twin Cities, 1999

Bio

Dr. Sen was hired in 2007 to teach in the Masters program. She teaches the foundational theory classes for the incoming Masters students. She is also one of the faculty members supervising the capstone project for the graduating Masters students. Dr Sen’s overall research interest lies in the area of minority health and related issues, particularly among Asian Americans and Asian Indians. Her specific area of interest is HIV/AIDS. Her scholarly activities include: role of gender, culture and poverty on health seeking behavior and access to health care services among underserved population; sexwork and sex trafficking and HIV/AID; immigration and human trafficking; social networks, social capital and their health impacts among migrant populations. Several of Dr. Sen’s completed and ongoing research projects were funded by the College of Applied Science and Arts and by the Silicon Valley Center for Global Innovation and Immigration. Dr. Sen was also awarded a fellowship by the Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco. She has presented her scholarly activities at local, national and international venues. Her completed/ongoing research projects include: (1) Impact of Migration and Social Capital on HIV risk among migrant men in Sub-Saharan Africa,(2) Role of gender and culture on sexwork in India, (3) HIV/AIDS and sex-trafficking within the Indian context, (4) Role of gender and culture on Condom Use Self Efficacy among substance users enrolled in community based substance abuse treatment programs, (4) Barriers and facilitators to accessing substance use treatment among Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and implications for intervention, (5) Exploring the role of stigma on HIV testing behavior and on accessing HIV related services among Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the Bay Area, (6) Social Capital and HIV risk among Indian H1-B visa holders in the Bay Area, and (7) Exploring Anti-human trafficking collaborations in the Bay Area.