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 果冻传媒. 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 果冻传媒 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, 果冻传媒
April 2020 Doctorate in Philosophy, History, 果冻传媒
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:
鈥�Passages through India: Indian Gurus, Western Disciples and the Politics of Indophilia, 1890-1940鈥� (CUP, 2023)
鈥楲anguages of Longing: Indian Gurus, Western Disciples and the Politics of Epistolarity鈥�, book chapter, Gurus and Media, UCL Press, (UCL Press, 2022)
鈥楾he Bengal Famine, 1943: Causes, Effects and Aftermath鈥�, Modern History Review, (April 2021).
鈥楲anguages of Longing: Indian Gurus, Western Disciples and the Politics of Epistolarity鈥�, book chapter, Gurus and Media, UCL Press, (Dec 2021)
鈥楢pproaching Migration in World History鈥�, SAGE Digital, (Autumn, 2021)
Professional Memberships (and other positions):
2020-now Member, Global History and Culture Centre, 果冻传媒
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, 果冻传媒
2018-2019 Founder, Queer History Reading Group, 果冻传媒
Teaching Experience:
2018-2020 Module Contributor and Guest-Lecturer, 鈥�South Asia in Britain鈥�, Institute of Advanced Teaching and Learning, 果冻传媒
2019-2020 Tutor, Galleons and Caravans: 1300-1800, Dept of History, 果冻传媒
2019-2020 Tutor, Race and the Making of Modern World, Dept of Sociology, 果冻传媒
2018- 2019 Tutor, Transnational Media Ecologies, Dept of Sociology, 果冻传媒
2017-2018 Academic Tutor, Realising Opportunities, 果冻传媒
