Dr. Gardner's research examines the cultural and social changes associated with international migration and globalization in Bangladesh, resulting in her monograph Global Migrants, Local Lives: Travel and Transformation in Rural Bangladesh (OUP 1995). She extended her interest in the Bengali diaspora through fieldwork conducted amongst Bengali elders in East London. Her monograph, Age, Narrative and Migration: The Life Course and Life Histories amongst Bengali Elders in London (Berg, 2002) analyses the elders' narratives of migration, ageing and illness in the UK, and suggests that transnational migration can be usefully understood as a gendered and embodied experience.
As part of her interest in transnational migration, Katy has published an edited collection on Transnational Migration and Household Ritual (Global Networks, 2002). Since 2008 Katy has also been working on a project funded by ESRC/Dfid on Mining, Livelihoods and Social Networks in Bangladesh. This has involved returning to her original fieldwork village in Bangladesh, where a multinational company is currently mining natural gas. The project investigates the relationships between transnational migration, global capitalism and resistance, plus the multinational policies and practices of 'Corporate Social Responsibility'.
