Pragya Agarwal

Professor Pragya Agarwal is a behavioural and data scientist and currently a visiting professor of social injustice and inequities at Loughborough University, and a fellow at University of Cambridge. She has held senior academic and leadership positions across UK and the USA. Recently she was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship at John Jay School of Criminal Justice in New York. She is the author of four widely acclaimed non-fiction books including Sway: Unravelling Unconscious Bias which was ‘Guardian Book of the Week’, (M)otherhood: the choices of being a woman, Wish we knew what to say: Talking with children about race, and Hysterical: Exploding the myth of gendered emotions.

Originally from India, she moved to the UK for postgraduate studies as a single parent. Further to her PhD, she became the first woman and person of colour to hold a lectureship at a leading UK engineering department. She uses her personal story to mentor and inspire other women in science and engineering, and to engage in important conversations around motherhood penalty and gender and racial inequalities in workplaces. Her work on emotional and invisible labour and the cost for women has been used as evidence for World Economic Forum. And, she has been invited to speak at Sky, Microsoft, Google, UNESCO, UHHCR, and the United Nations.

Professor Agarwal has also worked as a consultant and speaker for the Environment Agency, National Health Service, UK Police Commissioners and International Trade Commission, Springer Publishing, British Academy, and others. She was invited to deliver keynotes at the MotherNet Conference at Vilnius University (Lithuania), at the Barbara Hepworth symposium at Tate St Ives, Motherhood conference at Wheeler’s Centre (Melbourne), All About Women Conference at Sydney Opera House, and on art and motherhood at Birmingham Art Gallery. She was also part of the British Library series of talks in Secret Maps, speaking about her research in women and maps, and future of digital mapping.

Professor Agarwal has also given talks at Hay Festival, Edinburgh Literature Festival, Cheltenham Festival, Emirates Literature Festival, Dublin Literature Festival, and Northern Ireland Science Festival, and is regularly invited as an expert on global radio and television including BBC Women’s Hour, Radio 5 Live, NPR, and ABC.

Most recently, she has taken part in a panel on AI and inclusivity and delivered a keynote on Feminist AI at the London School of Economics. In 2026, she has contributed to Wellcome Collection’s research on ageing and will be chairing the symposium on ‘who gets to age well’, speak at the History of Science conference in Edinburgh, and be part of the panel on medical inequalities organised by Lancet and Elsevier.

Professor Agarwal delivers evidence-based talks grounded in intersectionality, bringing her energy and humour to the podium. She was awarded the Transmission Prize for making ‘complex scientific ideas accessible’.