Afsana Kona

Research interests: sociology of disasters; environmental sociology and governance; climate change adaptation, water crises; community resilience

Bio: Afsana Kona (she/her) joined the Department of Sociology at Virginia Tech as a master’s student and graduate research assistant in the fall of 2024. Before joining Virginia Tech, Afsana worked with multiple nonprofit organizations, including WaterAid, Winrock International, and Save the Children. She worked on projects that attempted to mitigate the sufferings of the most marginalized and disenfranchised communities affected by frequent disasters, climate crises, human trafficking, water insecurity, inadequate sanitation, and hygiene facilities—some of the most pressing development challenges. She holds both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree from the Institute of Disaster Management and Vulnerability Studies (IDMVS), University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Throughout her academic journey, she worked on several funded research projects on disaster and disability, flood volunteerism, and climate change. Afsana is passionate about her work and aims to understand communities and contribute to the field of disaster science and management through her research and practical experiences. She dreams of a world where everyone has access to basic rights, regardless of where they live and what race they belong to.