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Sanjukta Das Gupta is an Associate Professor at the Dipartimento "Istituto Italiano di Studi Orientali - ISO" of Sapienza Università di Roma. Earlier she was Associate Professor at the Department of History, University of Calcutta (2004-13); during this period she had been 'India Chair Professor of Modern Indian History' (2011-2013), at Sapienza, funded by the Indian Council of Cultural Relations, New Delhi. In 2020 she qualified as Full Professor in Sector 10-N3 (Culture of Central and Eastern Asia).
EDUCATION
Sanjukta Das Gupta was educated at Presidency College, Calcutta, from where she graduated with Honours in History (1986). She ranked First in the First Class in the postgraduate examinations at the University of Calcutta was awarded the Chandra Narayan Silver Medal from Presidency College and the Calcutta University Gold Medal (1988). She received the PhD degree in History from the University of Calcutta for her dissertation 'A Middle Indian Tribe in Transition: the Ho of Singhbhum, 1820-1932'.
AWARDS
Calcutta University Gold Medal for ranking First in First Class in M.A. examinations in History, 1988.
Chandra Narayan Silver Medal from Presidency College for ranking First in the First Class in the M.A. examinations in History, 1988.
National Talent Search Scholarship from high school through Masters degree awarded by the Government of India, 1983-88.
National Prize from State Government of West Bengal, 1981.
VISITING FACULTY AND FELLOWSHIPS
Visiting Fellow at the Faculty of Arts, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgiium, 10-16 December 2018.
Visiting Professor at the Department of History, University Paris-Diderot, France, 12-25 February 2018.
Visiting Professor at the Department of History, Calcutta University, India, 10-19 January 2018.
Visiting Professor, Institut für Südasien-, Tibet- und Buddhismuskunde, University of Vienna, Austria, 12-16 June 2017
Visiting Professor at Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Advanced Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Nuova Delhi, India, July-August 2015.
India Chair Professor of Modern Indian History at Sapienza Università di Roma (financed by the Indian Council of Cultural Relations, New Delhi), 2011-13.
Charles Wallace Research Grant for research in the United Kingdom, Charles Wallace India Trust, October-November 2009.
Visiting Fellow, Uppsala University in October 2005 on the Linnaeus Palme Exchange Programme on Environmental History
British Council Research Grant for research in Brtish Library, London, March-June 1997.
SEMINARS/ LECTURES/ CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS (last 5 years)
Pariticipated in roundtable on ‘Adivasis in 21st Century India: Invisibility, Progressive Inequality and Resilience’, at the international conference ‘The Globalization Project: Falling Behind or Failing Forward', organised by Università degli Studi di Torino in collaboration with Alternate Routes: A journal of Critical Social Research, 12-14 June 2019.
‘Adivasis and the State in India: Exploring Strategies of Resistance and Survival’, City University of New York, Brooklyn College, 20 September 2018
‘Myth or History? Exploring Adivasi Pasts in Colonial Jharkhand, India’, City University of New York, Brooklyn College, 20 September 2018
‘The Mandir and the Mela: Changing face of Jayadeva’s Kenduli in West Bengal’, European Conference for South Asian Studies, Paris, 24-27 July 2018.
‘Religion, adivasi identity and the politics of indigeneity in Jharkhand’, international conference, “Understanding radicalism” Rome, 19-20 aprile 2018, dip ISO.
‘Bengal’s Asian Encounters: Translocal Imaginings in the 20th century’, Third Conference on One Asia Community in Europe: Migration in Asia’, dip. ISO e One Asia Foundation, 13-15 marzo 2018.
‘British writings on “tribal” India: Ethnology, History and Rights in Colonial Jharkhand’, Department of History, University Paris-Diderot, 22 February 2018.
Chaired session on ‘Influence of Quit India Movement on Literature and Art’ at an international conference on ‘Revisiting 1942’, Satyajit Ray Auditorium, Indian Council of Cultural Relations, Kolkata, 20 January 2018.
‘Imagined Landscapes: British colonial writings on Jharkhand’ in a special panel on Environment and Empire at the Indian History Congress, Jadavpur University, 28 December 2017.
‘India and Her Indigenous People: Religious Revitalisation Movements in 20th century Jharkhand’, Institute of Religious Studies, Jagiellonian University, 13 December 2017.
‘The State and its Tribes: Post-Independence Imaginings and Praxis’ International Conference on ‘India and Pakistan after 70 years of Independence: Reflections on Culture and Politics’, Institute of the Middle and Far East, Jagiellonian University Kraków, Poland, 11-12 December, 2017.
‘Reaching for half the sky: Women’s movements in India since Independence’, conference on ‘Voci della Libertà: Storia, Società e Cultura nel 70° Anniversario dell’Independenza dell’India, 11 November 2017, Biblioteca Angelica, Rome.
‘Looking East: Bengali women’s travel narratives in the early 20th Century’, Convegno e Assemblea dei Soci Dell’Associazione Italiana Studi Sanscriti (AISS), Dip. ISO, 26 – 28 October 2017.
‘Gandhi and Adivasis’ in conference on ‘Bapuji: 148 anni dopo l L’eredità di Gandhi nel mondo contemporaneo’, Dip. ISO in collaboration with Fondazione Roma Sapienza, 5 October 2017.
‘Celebrating swadesh in bidesh: Durga Puja in Rome’, at ICAS 17 – conference of the International Convention of Asia Scholars, Chiang Mai, Thailand, 20-23 July 2017.
‘Remembering “Tribal” India: British Accounts of Jharkhand’, Institut für Südasien, University of Vienna, 16 June 2017.
‘The Famine of 1915-17 in Kolhan Government Estate’, in conference on 'Bihar and Jharkhand : Shared History to Shared Vision', Asian Development Research Institute, Patna, 24-28 March, 2017.
‘Land Rights and Adivasi Women: Colonial Eastern India’, in a special seminar jointly convened by the Department of History and Women Studies Centre, Vidyasagar University Midnapore, 31 March 2017.
‘Reinventing identities: Hos of Singhbhum in the 20th century’, at a conference on ‘Identity Politics in India: Reflections from the Past and Present’, Calcutta University, 30 March 2017.
"Law and 'tribal' subjects: British colonial experiments in the Bengal Presidency", at the Annual Conference, Law and Society Association, ‘At the Delta: Belonging, Place and Visions of Law and Social Change’, New Orleans, USA, 2-5 June 2016.
‘B.R. Ambedkar: His Role in 20th century India’ at the seminar on “Ambedkar and the ‘Annihilation of Caste’”, organized by the Indian Embassy, Rome, and the Dipartimento ISO, 20 April 2016.
Discussant at the conference on ‘Nationalism, Civil Rights and Liberties: Challenges for Democracy in India’, Dipartimento di Scienze Politiche, Sapienza Università di Roma, 6 April 2016.
“Environment and Adivasi Livelihood Practices in Chotanagpur and Santhal Parganas”, at a conference on ‘Environment and the Adivasi World’, Department of History, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, 10-12 February, 2016.
‘An Economic History of the Indian Peasantry: A Discussion of B.B. Chaudhuri's Peasant History of the Late Pre-Colonial and Colonial India’, XVIIth World Economic History Conference (WEHC) 2015, Kyoto 3-7 August 2015
‘Travels in “tribal” India: British accounts of Chotanagpur and Santhal Parganas in the nineteenth century’, Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Advanced Studies (JNIAS), Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, 28 August 2015.
‘Remembering “Tribal” India: Landscape, Ethnology and Governance in Chotanagpur in the nineteenth century’, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi, 30 July, 2015.
“Retelling Adivasi histories of Colonial India”, 6a Conference ISO, 20 May 2015.
‘Adivasis and dikus in Chotanagpur in the nineteenth century’, at "National Seminar" on ‘Revisiting Adivasi Autonomy: Self, Home & Habitat’, Department of History, Central University of Hyderabad, 19 -21 February 2015.
‘Marginalised Histories: Representations in British Colonial Writings on Tribes of Eastern India’, Centre for the Study of Discrimination and Exclusion (CSDE), Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, 16 February 2015.
‘Tribes as tenants: Tenancy legislations and the creation of tribal subjects in colonial Chotanagpur’, alla 23ma European Conference on South Asian Studies, University of Zurich, 23-26 July 2014.
‘Custom, Rights and Identity: Adivasi Women’s Land Rights in Eastern India’, alla conferenza su 'Religious Pluralism, Cultural Differences, Social and Institutional Stability: what can we learn from India?’, organizzata dal Dipartimento di Scienze politiche, Sapienza Università di Roma, 9-10 giugno 2014.
‘Adivasi women and land rights in Jharkhand’, Majority/Minorities: Which futures for democracy in South Asia?”, Dipartimento di Asia, Africa e Mediterraneo e Dipartmento di Scienze Umane e Sociali, Dottorato AOM & CSB, Università degli Studi di Napoli ‘L’Orientale’, 15 May 2014.
WORKSHOPS
Invited participant at international roundtable on ‘The Africa Museum at Tervuren’, Faculty of Arts, KU Leuven, 12 December 2018.
Invited participant at international workshop on ‘Indigeneity and Environmental Humanities’ at the Centre for Concurrences in Colonial and Postcolonial Studies and the Department of Cultural Sciences, Linnaeus University, Sweden, 18 October 2018. Paper: ‘Environment, indigeneity and Adivasi histories in Jharkhand’.
Presented paper on ‘The Politics of Hunger: A Study of the Famine of 1915-17 in Kolhan Government Estate in Eastern India’ at the Third COMPOT Workshop on Famine Stories and Survival Legends: Legacies to the Following Generations, Uppsala University, Sweden, 28 September – 1 October 2017.
Invited participant at the symposium ‘Power Structures, Conflict Resolution and Social Justice’, EU-India Platform for Social Science and Humanities (EqUIP), Sohna (India), 13-14 October 2016.
Resource Person at the Winter School on 'India Formazione Solidarietà Luoghi Lontani 2014-15';delivered talk on ‘Aspetti culturali, geo-storici, socio-antropologici dell’India di oggi: un’introduzione’, Dipartimento di Scienze Umane per la Formazione “R. Massa” Università degli Studi di Milano, Bicocca, 5 December 2014.
Invited participant at international workshop on ‘Mémoires dominées en Inde’ (Memorie soggiogate in India) at the University of Toulouse Le Mirail, 23-24 May 2013. Presented paper entitled ‘Oral Traditions in the Archive: Representations of the Ho Past’.
Invited participant al workshop internazionale su ‘Asian Environments: Governing Nature, Negotiating Knowledge, Constructing Subjectivities’, 30 November – 2 December, 2012, Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, Munich. Presented paper entitled ‘Colonial Policies and the Transformation of Indigenous Production Systems in Bengal’s Western Frontier'.
Resource person at the Winter School on 'Research Methodologies' organized by the Academic Staff College, Burdwan University, West Bengal, India, January 2014. Presented paper entitled ‘Writing Adivasi Histories in India’.
Joint Co-ordinator of Refresher course in History for college and university teachers: “Writing Social History: Past Perspectives, Contemporary Concerns”, Department of History, Calcutta University, 28 January-18 February 2009.
Presented paper entitled “Creating Identities: British Rule and the Hos of Singhbhum” at an international workshop on ‘Rural India: Change, Institutions and Identities’, organized by Calcutta University and University of Rome, La Sapienza, 11-12 September 2006, at the Centre for Social Studies and Humanities, Calcutta University.
Participant at the 3-week international workshop on 'Social History (Labour, Gender and Family)' organized by SEPHIS, Amsterdam and Codesria, Dakar, 15 September-14 October 2002, Dakar, Senegal.
PUBLIC ENGAGEMENTS
Panellist at the presentation of the book The Roots of the Periphery: A History of the Gonds of Deccan India, Centre for Study of Discrimination and Exclusion, Jawaharlal Nehru University, 12 April 2017.
Presentation and discussion at Energia Per i Diritti Umani Onlus, Roma, 11 May 2017.
Panellist at the presentation of the book by Alessandro Duce, Storia della Politica Internazionale (1945-2013): Il tramonto degli imperi coloniali, Sala del refettorio della Camera dei Deputati, 6 June 2017
Release of the book In Quest of the Historian’s Craft: Essays in Honour of Professor B.B. Chaudhuri, vols 1 &2, ed. Arun Bandopadhyay and Sanjukta Das Gupta, Delhi: Manohar, 2018, and felicitation to Prof. B.B. Chaudhuri, 18 September 2017.
Presentation at the seminar on ‘Mondi da Scoprire: India’ organised by the Comune di Rocca Priora, 21 March 2015.
Presentation on ‘The British Indian Army: Organisation and role in the world wars’ at the Commemoration of South Asian soldiers of the British Commonwealth in the war of liberation in Italy, organised by Fuorilinea and the Associazione Libera Intesa, Sala del Caroccio, Campidoglio, 16 April 2014.
Panellist at the presentation of the volume Arcobaleno, translations of Tagore, by M. Prayer and G. Gatteschi, Jouvence, Milano: 2014.
Presentation on “Indo-Italian Relations in Historical Perspective”, at a panel discussion on ‘India Grows at Night’ organised by Zètema Progetto Cultura and the Embassy of India, Sala delle Colonne, Tempio di Adriano, 1 July 2013.
Discussant at panel discussion on ‘Civiltà ferita, guerra alle donne’, Associazione Casa Internazionale delle Donne, Rome, 19 January 2013.
Discussion on ‘Land Rights and Adivasi Women: Central and Eastern India in the 20th century’, Associazione Casa della Donna, Biblioteca Universitaria, Pisa, 7 June 2012. The conference was organised by the Comune di Pisa as part of the project on ‘Spazi di Dialogo tra Culture: Trasformazioni, Mutuazioni, Ricomposizioni’.
OTHER ACTIVITIES
Member of Advisory Committee of European Association for South Asian Studies.
Member of Editorial Board, South Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal (SAMAJ).
Member of Editorial Advisory Committee, Calcutta Historical Journal, Journal of the Department of History, University of Calcutta, since 2015
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
Member, European Association of South Asian Studies
Life Member, The Asiatic Society, Calcutta
Member, Indian History Congress
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