Dr Somak Biswas
Please refer to my Staff Page for latest information.
Dr Somak Biswas is a historian of race, sexuality and migration. He completed his PhD from the University of Warwick. Prior to his doctorate, Somak did his Masters and M.Phil at the Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
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', offers a history of western Indophilia – romanticised ideas around idealised forms of India – through a close study of the British and American networks of major Indian figures like Gandhi, Vivekananda and Tagore. It examines how Indophile affective intimacy was cultivated with gurus through in letters and ashrams and how this sustained a consistent championing of Indian causes. Drawing on new and old archives from India, USA and Britain, it charts the transnational deployment of sympthatiec white figures in discourses of global Hinduism and anti-indenture campaigns. Despite this anticolonial thrust, Indophile networks frequently reproduced the very hierarchies of race, class and caste that they sought to transgress.
Transnational and Global History; Race, Migration, Sexuality; British Empire, South Asia, Dalit Histories.
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:
‘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)
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
