About Dr. Arifa Javed

Sociologist and Documentarian

Through writing and producing her films, Dr. Arifa Javed—an India-born sociology professor—creates educational documentaries shaped by her own immigration journey and the experiences she has studied through a sociologist’s lens. After moving to the U.S., she broadened her research to focus on immigration, acculturation, and evolving family dynamics as key drivers of social change..

Since the late 1990s, Dr. Javed has taught sociology at Wayne State University and the University of Michigan–Dearborn. In 2014, she began producing documentaries that showcase Michigan’s cultural diversity within its Indian immigrant community. Her films—Essential Arrival, Season in the Mist, Many Passages of Time, and Cross Culture and Religion—have been featured at film festivals across the United States and India.

She previously authored Muslim Society in Transition, a study of post-independence social changes within Hyderabad’s Muslim community. After immigrating to the U.S. in 1995, Dr. Javed continued her work on the Hyderabadi diaspora and expanded her research to other immigrant groups. She has also developed acculturation and diversity workshops for organizations supporting integration among Detroit’s varied immigrant communities and the broader public. A certified applied sociologist since 2007, she uses this website to showcase her work in advancing pluralism and social integration.