SUCHARITA SEN - Izaac Walton Killam Postdoctoral Fellow (2025-27), Department of International Development Studies
Sucharita Sen is interested in the politics of everyday life beyond the conventional epicenters of power, with her research methodologically anchored at the intersection of history and social anthropology. Her doctoral dissertation examined how everyday nonsexual intimacies between the colonizers and the colonized in British India upheld imperial hierarchies and fortified class boundaries while masking colonial violence. Using intersectionality and affect theory, she interrogated the myriad ways in which these quotidian relationships functioned alongside official structures of power. Her current project is the first full-length study of how caste, class and gender have shaped the Hindu Bengali matrimonial market from colonial Calcutta to contemporary Kolkata. Sen examines the marriage market which evolved responding to the exigencies of British colonial rule, exposed the quotidian contradictions at the heart of the imperial project and epitomised intricate modernities that championed western liberal values while leaving everyday commitments to primordial loyalties intact. The extant manifestations of such enduring loyalties reverberate both among domestic and diasporic communities reflecting the complexities of everyday life governed by multiple intersectional identities.
Sucharita can be reached at s.sen@dal.ca
Education:
B.A. (First Class Honors with Rank), Lady Brabourne College, University of Calcutta, India
M.A. (Gold Medalist), Presidency University, Kolkata, India
PhD., Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand
Awards:
路 听Fulbright-Nehru Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Department of History, The Ohio State University (2024-25).
路 Fulbright Outreach Lecturing Fund Award at Saint Catherine University and Edina High School, Minnesota (2025).
路 听History Innovation Fund Postdoctoral Fellowship for Early-Career Researchers at the School of Humanities, The University of Auckland, New Zealand (March-November 2023).
路 听Grant(s) from the Faculty Support Fund, History Innovation Fund and School of Humanities Operating Expenditure Budget to convene an international interdisciplinary conference at the Faculty of Arts, The University of Auckland (September 2023).
路 Walter L. Arnstein Prize for the Best Ph.D. Paper at the 68th annual Midwest conference on British Studies (a regional affiliate of the North American conference on British Studies), Bowling Green State University, Ohio (2021).
路 听Prize for the Best Ph.D. Paper at the biennial conference of the New Zealand Historical Association, Massey University (2021).
路 听Certificate of Excellence from Oxford University Press (India) for being the winning contributor of the December (2021) issue of Tell听Me Your Story Review, published in association with OUP (India).
Publications
Journals:
1.听听听听 Sucharita Sen, 鈥楥aste No Bar? Non-Resident Indian Grooms Searching for Brides in Kolkata鈥�, Public Humanities (Cambridge University Press), 1: e69 (2025),
2.听听听听 Sucharita Sen and Sekhar Bandyopadhyay, 鈥楥aste and Politics in West Bengal: In Conversation with Sekhar Bandyopadhyay鈥�, Contemporary South Asia (Routledge in Association with the British Association for South Asian Studies), Vol. 31, No. 3 (2023), pp. 406-412.
3.听听听听 Sucharita Sen, 鈥楾he Anglo-Indian Household: Paradoxes of Hierarchy and Intimacy in Imperial Domestic Space鈥�, South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies (Routledge in Association with the South Asian Studies Association of Australia), Vol. 45, No. 5 (October 2022), pp. 850-868.
4.听听听听 Sucharita Sen, 鈥楾he Melody of Universalism: Political Thought in Rabindra Sangeet鈥�, Society and Culture in South Asia (Sage Publications in Association with South Asian University, New Delhi), Vol. 9, No. 1 (January 2023), pp. 104鈥�127.
5.听听听听 Sucharita Sen, 鈥楾he Uneasy Gaze: Appearing for Interviews to get Married 鈥� An Empirical Investigation into the Pre-marital Arranged Marriage Negotiations in Urban Kolkata鈥�, Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities, Vol. 13, No. 2 (April-June 2021), pp. 1-11. 听
6.听听听听 Sucharita Sen, 鈥楳emsahibs and Ayahs during the Indian Mutiny: In English Memoirs and Fiction鈥�, Studies in People鈥檚 History, Volume 7, Issue 2 (December 2020), pp. 159-170. (Special Issue: Reconstructing Women鈥檚 History), (Sage Publications in Association with Aligarh Historians Society).
7.听听听听 Sucharita Sen, 鈥楾radition-Technology Wedlock: The Paradoxical Modernisation of Matrimony鈥�, South Asian Survey, Volume 27, Issue 2 (September 2020), pp. 172-190. (Special Issue-Realms of Gender Interactions: South Asian Perspectives), (Sage Publications).
Chapters in Books:
1.听听听听 Sucharita Sen, 鈥榃orking Night Shifts, Traversing Neoliberal Roads: Spatial-Temporal Confluence and the Male Gaze鈥� in Swathi Krishnan and Srirupa Chatterjee (Eds.). Gender Violence in Public Spaces: Women鈥檚 Narratives of Travel in Neoliberal India (Maryland: Lexington Books, 2023), Chapter 10. ISBN: 978-1-66690-232-7 (Hardback), 978-1-66690-233-4 (eBook).
2.听听听听 Sucharita Sen, 鈥楤eing Single: The Plight of Spinsters and Divorcees in Urban Kolkata鈥� in Subhadeep Paul and Goutam Majhi (Eds.) Beyond the Heteronorm: Interrogating Critical Alterities (Maryland: Lexington Books, 2024), Chapter 8. ISBN: 978-1-66691-093-3 (Hardback), 978-1-66691-094-0 (eBook). 听
3.听听听听 Sucharita Sen, 鈥楧isguised Dowry and the Ritualization of Patriarchy: An Empirical Exploration of the Institution of Marriage in Urban Kolkata鈥� in Anuradha Tiwari and Tarakeshwar Gupta (Eds.). Gender, Equality and Development: A Perspective from Academia (Delaware: Vernon Press, 2022), pp. 207-226. ISBN: 978-1-64889-290-5.
4.听听听听 Sucharita Sen, 鈥極n the 70th Anniversary of the Partition of India: Rethinking Intolerance in a Diverse Country鈥� in Indrashis Banerjee and Sandipan Sen (Eds.) Interrogating Intolerance (Belur Math: Swami Shastrajnananda, Ramkrishna Mission Vidyamandira, 2017), pp. 140-150. ISBN: 978-81-934762-6-0.
Edited Collections
1.听听听听 Special issue titled 鈥楾he Individual-State Interaction: Mapping a Journey from Colonial to Post-Colonial South Asia鈥� at the New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies [slotted for publication in December 2025]. The special issue teams up five established and emerging scholars on South Asia.
Invited Talks
1.听听听听 Mentor Panellist at Strengthen Your Fulbright-Nehru Postdoc Application: Expert Tips and Guidance, Fulbright Commission in India, 13 June 2025.
2.听听听听 鈥楾he Colonial Nursery鈥� at the Comparative History of Women, Gender and Sexuality Seminar Series at the University of Minnesota, 7 March 2025.
3.听听听听 鈥楩rom Kolkata to Columbus: My Fulbright Journey鈥� (Student Interaction on Fulbright), Saint Catherine University, Saint Paul, Minnesota, 6 March 2025 (part of Fulbright Outreach Lecturing Program funded by the U.S. Department of State).
4.听听听听 鈥楴eo-Liberal Neo-Patriarchy: Social Justice and Women in Post-Millennial India鈥� (Special Lecture and Student Interaction), Saint Catherine University, Saint Paul, Minnesota, 6 March 2025 (part of Fulbright Outreach Lecturing Program funded by the U.S. Department of State).
5.听听听听 鈥楳y India: Religious Pluralism and The Colours of Holi鈥� at the Asian American Alliance, Edina High School, Minnesota, 6 March 2025 (part of Fulbright Outreach Lecturing Program funded by the U.S. Department of State).
6.听听听听 Plenary Address, History Graduate Conference, Faculty of Arts, The University of Auckland, 8 September 2023.
7.听听听听 Gendered Spaces: Memsahibs and their Ayahs in the Anglo-Indian Household, c. 1800-c.1915, Aotearoa Gender History Network, Online, 17 May 2023.
8.听听听听 Caste and Gender in the Bengali Matrimonial Market (An Interview [Discussion] conducted by Professor Pradip Basu) at 鈥楻ashtrabigyan Charchakendra鈥� (Political Science Discussion Centre), Facebook and YouTube Live, 20 February 2023.
9.听听听听 The Anglo-Indian Household: Interracial Relationships in Imperial Domestic Space at the Young Researchers鈥� Conference Series, Department of Political Science, Presidency University, Kolkata, 15 February 2023.
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