Sohini Chattopadhyay

I am a historian of South Asia. My research spans from colonialism to its aftermath, with particular interests in the comparative studies of urban history, labor histories, and the history of science and technology.

My current book project studies the intersections between Science and Technology Studies and South Asian history through the history of the crematorium, as the object transformed working class death rites and community histories in Bombay and Calcutta (present day Mumbai and Kolkata). I argue for the need to study the disjunctive and regionally varied colonial histories of science and technology in British India, and I demonstrate that the regional variations were necessary (and often strategic) outcomes of colonial science's engagement with labor, caste, and community hierarchies.

Drawing from my interest in bodies and technologies, my second book project focuses on the business and social histories of sanitary napkins in colonial to Cold War era South Asia.

Working Group Affiliation

Geographies of Injustice: Gender and the City, Graduate Assistant