Dr Somak Biswas
Dr Somak Biswas is a historian of race, sexuality and migration, focusing on South Asia and Britain. He completed his PhD from the University of Warwick, UK. Prior to his doctorate, Somak did his Masters and M.Phil at the Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He is currently an Honorary Research Fellow at the Global History and Culture Centre, University of Warwick.
Somak's first monograph, based on his doctoral research at Warwick is entitled 'Passages through India: Indian Gurus, Western Disciples and the Politics of Indophilia, 1890-1940', and is currently under contract with the Cambridge University Press. The book reconstructs a transnational history of white Indophilia – romanticised engagements around idealised forms of India – through a close study of the western networks of three major Indian figures: Gandhi, Vivekananda and Tagore. It examines how Indophile affective intimacy was cultivated with their Indian gurus through spaces like letters and ashrams; then deployed assiduously in more global arenas to represent Indian nationalist causes. Drawing on a range of new and old archives from India, Fiji, South Africa, USA and Britain, it charts the transnational deployment of white Indophiles in discourses on global Hinduism and anti-indenture campaigns. Indian nationalist instrumentalization of Indophile networks, it argues, frequently reproduced the very hierarchies of race, class and caste that they were supposedly seeking to transgress.
Somak is also developing his next project on the intersection of sexuality and migration in the making of British border regimes, focusing on Asian and African migrations to postwar Britain. He is also co-lead on the project Global Coventry, along with Prof Anne Gerritsen and the Global History and Culture Centre.
Transnational and Global History; Migration; Race, Gender, Caste and Sexuality; History of Emotions; Queer Studies; Feminist and Postcolonial Theory; modern South Asia, Dalit Histories, Public History, Decolonisation.
Academic Profile
April 2020 - Early Career Fellow, Institute of Advanced Studies, University of Warwick
April 2020 Doctorate in Philosophy, History, University of Warwick
Aug 2015 Master of Philosophy, Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
July 2013 Master of Arts, Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
July 2011 Bachelor of Arts, Presidency College, University of Calcutta, Kolkata.
Publications:
Forthcoming
‘Passages through India: Indian Gurus, Western Disciples and the Politics of Indophilia, 1890-1940’ (CUP, 2023)
‘Languages of Longing: Indian Gurus, Western Disciples and the Politics of Epistolarity’, book chapter, Gurus and Media, UCL Press, (UCL Press, 2022)
‘The Bengal Famine, 1943: Causes, Effects and Aftermath’, Modern History Review, (April 2021).
‘Languages of Longing: Indian Gurus, Western Disciples and the Politics of Epistolarity’, book chapter, Gurus and Media, UCL Press, (Dec 2021)
‘Approaching Migration in World History’, SAGE Digital, (Autumn, 2021)
Published:
‘Approaching Migration in World History’, SAGE Digital, (Autumn, 2021)
‘The Bengal Famine, 1943: Causes, Effects and Aftermath’, Modern History Review, (April 2021).
‘From Noble to Nivedita: Sister Nivedita and her Passages Through India’, Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, Vol. 75, Platinum Jubilee (2014), pp 790-797
‘Claiming a History: The 2012 Cartoon Controversy and Public History Debates in Contemporary India’, The Journal of the Ever Present Past, ESTRO Vol 10 No 2 April 2019
‘From Noble to Nivedita: Sister Nivedita and her Passages Through India’, Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, Vol. 75, Platinum Jubilee (2014), pp 790-797
‘Claiming a History: The 2012 Cartoon Controversy and Public History Debates in Contemporary India’, The Journal of the Ever Present Past, ESTRO Vol 10 No 2 April 2019
Public Engagement
Feb 2021 Blog Piece: ‘Notes on Queering Immigration History’, Sanglap
Oct 2019 Blog piece: ‘Queer’ in Asia, Queer History, Warwick
Sep 2018 Blog piece: ‘Between and Beyond: Transnational Networks and the British Empire (18th-20th Century): Notes from a Workshop’, Global History and Culture Centre, Warwick
April 2018 Opinion Piece: 'Dalit movements across India will be a front against hegemonic nationalism', Hindustan Times, New Delhi
Professional Memberships (and other positions):
2020-now Member, Global History and Culture Centre, University of Warwick
2018-now Member, Royal Historical Society, UK
2018-now Member, University and College Union
2019-now Member, Borders, Race, Ethnicity and Migration Network (BREM)
2020-2021 Founder-Convener, Black Studies Reading Group, University of Warwick
2018-2019 Founder, Queer History Reading Group, University of Warwick
Teaching Experience:
2018-2020 Module Contributor and Guest-Lecturer, ‘South Asia in Britain’, Institute of Advanced Teaching and Learning, University of Warwick
2019-2020 Tutor, Galleons and Caravans: 1300-1800, Dept of History, Warwick
2019-2020 Tutor, Race and the Making of Modern World, Dept of Sociology, Warwick
2018- 2019 Tutor, Transnational Media Ecologies, Dept of Sociology, Warwick
2017-2018 Academic Tutor, Realising Opportunities, Warwick
Academic Awards (selective):
- 2020-2022: Past and Present Junior Research Fellowship, Institute of Historical Studies, University of London.
- 2019- 2020: Coventry City of Culture Grant, Project: ‘Queer and Coloured: Asylums, Islamophobia and LGBT movements in Coventry, 1970-2010’
- 2015-’19: Chancellor’s International Scholarship for Doctoral Studies, University of Warwick
- 2019-2021: International Partnership Award for Institutional Collaboration between Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi and Global History Centre, Warwick.
- 2016-2019: Global History and Culture Centre Conference Award(£3000), Humanities Research Centre Conference Award (£500), Economic History Society Conference Grant (£1000), Global Research Priorities, Warwick: Connecting Cultures (£1000) and Another India (£500); HRC: Passions Workshop Research Grant (£500)
- 2017: Feminist Theory Workshop Travel Grant, Duke University, NC, U.S
- 2014-’15: Rajeev Gandhi National Fellowship for Minorities, Government of India.
- 2012: Qualified for Lecturership in the Indian University Grants Commission – National Eligibility Test.
- 2011: 'Order of Merit’ for being First Class First in B.A (Hons.), History, by the University of Calcutta.
- 2010: ‘Certificate of Honour’ for securing Highest marks in History Hons. Exam, Dept. of History, Presidency College, Calcutta.
- 2010: Ashin Dasgupta Memorial Prize, Department of History, Presidency College, Calcutta.
Invited Seminars and Talks:
- Jan 2020: Seminar: ‘Vedanta and its Variables’, World History Workshop, Cambridge.
- May 2019: Chair, Roundtable on ‘Hindutva: Trans/National and Global Narratives of Hindu Nationalism’, Warwick.
- February 2018: ‘India, Indenture and the Empire: Cultural Politics of a Transnational Discourse, 1904-1945’, Dept of International History, LSE
- March, 2017, Panel Discussant, ‘Reforming the Self’’, Young Scholars Conference on Narratives of Embodiment, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi.
- 2016 and 2017: Student Research Ambassador, Dept of History, University of Warwick.
Events/Conferences Organised
- March 2019: Convenor, ‘British Empire: Networks, Mobilities, Cultures’, Warwick;
- June 2018: Convenor, 'Between & Beyond: Transnational Networks & the British Empire, Ca. 18-20th centuries', Global History Centre, Warwick
- Nov 2019: ‘Race Matters: Race and the Global Writing of History’, Global History Annual Conference, University of Warwick, UK
- Oct 2016: Organised Panel Discussion and Performance event, #Kashmir2016: India and the Question of Kashmiri Sovereignty, Another IndiaLink opens in a new window, University of Warwick.
- March 2016: Organised Times of the Nation: Being Anti-national in the Contemporary India, Panel Discussion event, University of Warwick.
Presentations (Selective):
- June 2018: ‘Indenture: Cultural Politics of a Transnational Discourse’, Global History Conference, Freie Universitat, Berlin, Germany.
- June 2018: ‘Cartographies of the Self: Indian Gurus, Western disciples and the Politics of Epistolary Articulation’, University of Sheffield, UK.
- December 2016: Participant, Winter School on ‘Gandhian Ideas and Thought’, Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla, India.
- September, 2015: ‘In Pursuit of an Ideal Space: Gender in Gandhi’s ashrams: 1925-1935’, CHS-Cambridge History Workshop, ‘Ideas in Practice’, Centre for Historical Studies (CHS), Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India.
Research Assistance/Administration
- 2017 - 2019: Research Assistant, Wellcome Trust Project led by Prof. Anne Gerritsen on Therapeutic Commodities: Trade, Transmission and the Material Culture of Global Medicine, Global History and Culture Centre, University of Warwick.
Languages
Hindi, English, Bengali (fluent speaking, reading and writing), Sanskrit (fluent reading and writing).
