Sinjita Bhattacharya

Sinjita Bhattacharya is an Arlene Mayerson Legal Intern for the summer of 2024. Sinjita is thrilled to be at DREDF to learn from a legacy of disability organizing and think creatively about how to challenge ableism using the legal system.

Sinjita is a J.D. Candidate at the University of Washington School of Law and a William H. Gates Public Service Scholar. She graduated summa cum laude from Hofstra University with a bachelor’s in Sociology, along with minors in Disability Studies and Civic Engagement. Sinjita received high honors for her thesis examining the role of stigma and ableism in South Asian immigrant families, with a focus on disabled and non-disabled sibling relationships.

Prior to law school, Sinjita had experiences working with Disability Rights New Jersey, investigating and monitoring psychiatric residential treatment facilities and state hospitals for abuse and neglect, and working at a veteran’s disability benefits low-bono firm. She was the Director of Programs for an anti-ableist family empowerment organization and has facilitated many anti-ableism and disability justice trainings for caregivers and family members.   

As the older sister to a disabled sibling and a disabled person herself, Sinjita’s lived experience has made her intimately aware of how the law can be used as a barrier to maintain systemic oppression and simultaneously one of many tools toward collective liberation. As a multiply marginalized person driven by disability justice and abolition, she recognizes all oppression as intertwined and hopes to amplify the experiences of disabled folks who are most marginalized in our communities — in prisons, hospitals, ICE detention, psychiatric facilities, and on the streets — to aid transformative change led by social justice movement organizers.