Anindya Kundu, PhD, is an Associate Professor at Florida International University and a sociologist whose research examines student agency, structural inequality, and the social and institutional environments that shape opportunity. His scholarship challenges individualistic explanations of success, including conventional understandings of grit, and explores how educational institutions, leadership, and relationships can expand or constrain human agency.
Anindya is the author of The Power of Student Agency: Looking Beyond Grit to Close the Opportunity Gap (Teachers College Press, 2020), a finalist for the Association of American Publishers’ PROSE Award, and Transforming Educational Leadership: Non-Traditional Narratives to Promote Equity in Uncertain Times (Oxford University Press, 2025). His forthcoming trade book, Outside In (Avery/Penguin Random House), extends his sociological research to broader questions of personal growth, social environments, and the conditions that help people thrive.
A committed public scholar, Anindya has delivered two global TED Talks with more than six million views, including one recognized among the five most popular TED Talks of 2020. His research and commentary have appeared in outlets including NPR, MSNBC, USA Today, The74Million, The Conversation, and The Miami Herald. Through his academic and public-facing work, he seeks to bridge sociological research and everyday practice, helping educators, leaders, and individuals better understand how environments shape possibilities for meaningful change and champion for collective responsibilities to uphold the promises of public education.