Swapna M. Banerjee
Undergraduate Deputy/ Professor
History
Location: 1127b Boylan Hall
Phone: 718.951.5000 x2815
Fax: 718.951.4504
Email:
Banerjee is selected as a Distinguished Scholar for the Advanced Research Collective (2023) at The Graduate Center, CUNY. She focuses on women, servants, children, fathers, masculinity, and family history. Her book Fathers in a Motherland: Imagining Fatherhood in Colonial India (OUP, 2022) interrogates the connection between fatherhood and masculinity. Her co-edited volume Mapping Women's History (Stree-Samya, 2022) traces the history of Indian feminisms and their global connections through generations. In Men, Women and Domestics: Articulating Middle-Class Identity in Colonial Bengal (OUP, 2004), Banerjee restored domestic workers in India's colonial history for the first time. Supported by the Australian Research Council, she is currently working on a joint project that historicizes the traveling Indian ayahs and Chinese amahs of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (https://ayahsandamahs.com/). She was the Endowed Chair in Women's and Gender Studies (2016-18).
Education:
Ph.D., Temple University - 1998 (History)
MA, University of Calcutta - 1989 (History)
BA, Presidency University, Kolkata - 1987 (History)
Areas of Expertise:
Banerjee's works lies at the intersection of gender, caste-class, race, and ethnicity in colonial India. She emphasizes that as central forms of social organization and stratification, gender and family emerge at the crossroads of concurrent forces that are not divorced from statecraft or politics. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on British imperialism, Indian nationalism; Gender, Race, Empire; Gender, Family, State; and Women in Modern India.
Books and Publications
"Professor Geraldine Forbes: A Short Biography and her Contribution to Women's History in India" for a festschrift celebrating Geraldine Forbes' fifty years of engagement with India. (Books and Publications: Forthcoming Publications) 2020
Spring 2023: Distinguished Scholar, Advanced Research Collective at The Graduate Center of CUNY. (Awards and Honors) 2023
Currently completing a book on fathers and children in colonial India (under contract with Oxford University Press)
August 27, 2022: "Defending Fatherhood? Daughters' Recollections of Fathers in Colonial Bengal," Women's History Conclave, India. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2022
External Examiner for adjudication of Ph.D. thesis (History) of Ms. Bhaswati Chakraborti, University of Calcutta (Professional Leadership: Committee Service) 2017
"Servants as Social Imaginaries: Intimate Labor of Male Domestic Workers in Late Colonial India," Indian Economic and Social History Review, a special issue on servants. (Forthcoming, 2020) (Books and Publications: Forthcoming Publications) 2020
Fathers in a Motherland: Imagining Fatherhood in Colonial India (Forthcoming, Oxford University Press) (Books and Publications: Forthcoming Publications) 2020
"Through the Ages of Life: Rabindranath Tagore -- the Son, Father, and Educator (1861-1941)" in Enfances Familles Générations, 2017 https://journals.openedition.org/efg/1508
(Books and Publications: Article (Peer-reviewed)) 2017
Review of Sarada Balagopalan?s Inhabiting 'Childhood': Children, Labour and Schooling in Postcolonial India (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014) in the Journal of Asian Studies.
(Books and Publications: Forthcoming Publications) 2017
Through the Ages of Life: Rabindranath Tagore -- the Son, Father, and Educator (1861-1941) in Enfances Familles Générations.
(Books and Publications: Forthcoming Publications) 2017
"Everyday Emotional Practices of Fathers and Children in Late Colonial Bengal, India?" Childhood, Youth and Emotions in Modern History. Ed. Stephanie Olsen et al (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015) pp. 221-241. (Books and Publications: Article (Peer-reviewed)) 2015
"The Emergent Youth Culture in Nineteenth-century India: A View From Colonial Bengal." Lost Histories of Youth Culture. Ed. Christine Feldman (New York: Peter Lang, 2015) pp. 239-255. (Books and Publications: Article (Peer-reviewed)) 2015
"Baby Halder's A Life Less Ordinary: A Transition From India's Colonial Past." Colonization and Domestic Service. Eds. Victoria Haskins and Claire Lowrie (New York: Routledge, 2014) pp. 239-255. (Books and Publications: Article (Peer-reviewed)) 2014
"Risking Life, Writing Selves: From the Trailblazer Pritilata Waddedar to the Rebellious Baby Halder." They Dared, a volume commemorating Pritilata Waddedar from Bethune College. Ed. Simonti Sen. Kolkata, India. 198-220. (Books and Publications: Article (Peer-reviewed)) 2011
Review of Mohua Sarkar's Visible Histories, Disappearing Women: Producing Muslim Womanhood in Late Colonial Bengal (Durham: Duke University Press, 2008) in Women's History Review. (Books and Publications: Forthcoming Publications) 2011
"Blurring Boundaries, Distant Companions: Non-kin Female Caregivers for Children in Colonial India." Paedagogica Historica 46.6, December: 777-790. (Special issue edited by V. Pache and V. Dasen, Politics and History of Childcare. From the World of Wet Nurses to the Networks of Family Childcare Providers.) (Books and Publications: Article (Peer-reviewed)) 2010
"Debates on Domesticity and Position of Women in Late Colonial India" History Compass Journal August 6: 455-73. Oxford, United Kingdom: Blackwell Publishing. (Books and Publications: Article (Peer-reviewed)) 2010
Review of Rochona Majumdar's Marriage and Modernity: Family Values in Colonial Bengal (Durham: Duke University Press, 2009). American Historical Review 115.4, October: 1135-36. (Books and Publications: Book Review) 2010
"Domestic Service as Paid Work for Women" and biographical profiles of four Bengali women (Basanti Devi, Bina Das, Santi Ghose, and Rashsundari Debi). Oxford Encylcopedia of Women in Global History. Ed. Bonnie Smith. New York: Oxford Univeristy Press. (Books and Publications: Article (Other)) 2008
"Children's Literature in Nineteenth Century India: Some Reflections and Thoughts?" GRAAT (Groupe de Recherches Anglo-Américaines de Tours), a refereed journal from Université Francois Rabelais, Tours. France. 337-51. (Books and Publications: Article (Peer-reviewed)) 2007
"Child, Mother, and Servant: The Discourse of Motherhood and Domestic Ideology in Colonial Bengal." Rhetoric and Reality: Gender and Colonial Experience in South Asia. Eds. Avril Powell and Siobhan Lambert-Hurley. 17-50.
"Subverting the Moral Universe: 'Narratives of Transgression' in the Construction of Middle-Class Identity in Colonial Bengal." Beyond Representations: Colonial and Postcolonial Constructions of Indian Identity. Ed. Crispin Bates. 77-99. (Books and Publications: Book Chapter) 2005
"Down Memory Lane: Representations of Domestic Workers in Middle-Class Writings of Colonial Bengal." Journal of Social History 37.3: 681-708. (Books and Publications: Article (Peer-reviewed)) 2004
Men, Women, and Domestics: Articulating Middle-Class Identity in Colonial India. Delhi/New York: Oxford University Press. Reviewed in The Journal of Asian Studies 66.2, May 2007: 564-66; The American Historical Review 111.5, January 2007; Indian Economic and Social History Review, 2007; Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History 34, 2006: 632-33; The Statesman (daily newspaper in India), September 2006; and Desh (biweekly periodical in Bengali), October 2006. (Books and Publications: Book (Authored)) 2004
"Domestic Manuals on Mistress-Servant Relationships: Constructing Bengali Middle Class Identity through "Appropriate" Codes of Conduct." Modern Historical Studies 2, June-July 2001. Rabindrabharati University, Calcutta, India. 7-36. (Books and Publications: Article (Peer-reviewed)) 2002
Awards, Honors and Fellowships
Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery project (2020-2023) grant on a collaborative research "Ayahs and Amahs: Transcolonial Servants in Australia and Britain 1780-1945." (Grants and Fellowships) 2020
CUNY Diversity Project Development Fund.
(Grants and Fellowships) 2017
RF-CUNY Grant from PSC-CUNY Research Foundation, 2013-14. (Grants and Fellowships) 2013
Wolfe Fellowship from Ethyle R. Wolfe Institute for the Humanities of Brooklyn College, 2013-14. (Grants and Fellowships) 2013
RF-CUNY Grant, 2010-11. (Grants and Fellowships) 2010
RF-CUNY Grant. (Grants and Fellowships) 2007
Whiting Fellowship for excellence in teaching, awarded by Brooklyn College. (Awards and Honors) 2007
Humanities Scholarship Award from Humanities Scholarship Enhancement Fund Committee of the University of Florida - Gainesville. (Grants and Fellowships) 2003
NEH-funded American Institute of Indian Studies Senior Research Fellowship. (Awards and Honors) 2002
Research Activities
Co-editing a volume (with Padma Anagol of the University of Cardiff, UK and Paula Banerjee of the University of Calcutta, India), Interrogating Feminisms
2016
Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums
Sept. 16, 2022: Keynote address in the seminar "Geographies of Childhood" at the Ramkrishna Sarada Vivekananda Mission College, Kolkata. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2022
Spet. 12, 2022: Chair and Discussant of Workshop, William Wood's Portrait of Joanna de Silva: Looking into the Visual Histories of Colonial Child-Carers with the Dr. Adam Eaker, the Associate Curator of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and members of Ayahs and Amah team.
https://ayahsandamahs.com/ (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2022
August 2021 Chair and discussant of a panel of migrant domestic workers, International Convention of Asian Studies, Tokyo ICAS. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2021
August 2021 Chair and discussant of a panel of migrant domestic workers, International Convention of Asian Studies, Tokyo ICAS. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2021
August 2020: Panelist in a virtual workshop entitled 'Paid Domestic Work as "Decent Work": Aspirations and Realities' as part of a project The Laws of Social Reproduction (funded by European Research Council), Kings College, London.
(Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2020
Discussant of a panel on Globalized Care Economies at London School of Economics. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2020
Jan. 2020 Organizer and presenter at the Roundtable "Roma: Reflections on Histories of Domestic Service and Race in a 21st century Film" at the Annual Meeting of the American Historical Association in New York. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2020
July 2020: Discussant of a panel on Globalized Care Economies at the International Inequalities Institute (III) of the London School of Economics (LSE).
(Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2020
November 2020: Chaired a webinar session for Women's History Conclave, India (Speaker: Geraldine Forbes, "Blouses, Loose Hair, and Shoes: Mining Photographs for Women's History."
(Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2020
October 2020: Invited lecture "Children and Family in Satyajit Ray's Pather Panchali," St. Ann's School, Brooklyn.
(Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2020
April 2018: Guest Speaker, International Conference, "Servants Past," Humboldt University, Berlin. Paper, "Servants as Social Imaginaries: The Intimate Labor of Male Domestic Workers in Colonial Bengal, India."
(Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2018
Oct 2018: "Imagining Children: Early Conceptualization of Citizenship in Bengali Science Magazines of the Late-Nineteenth Century" at the Annual South Asia Conference, University of Wisconsin, Madison. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2018
Discussant of the panel "The Emotional Lives of Children, 1600-1950" at the annual meeting of Social Science Historical Association, Montreal.
(Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2017
When Personal becomes Political: Rabindranath Tagore and his Experiments with Schooling in Colonial India? at the annual conference of the Society for the History of Childhood and Youth, Rutgers University, Camden. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2017
"Subalternity and Manhood: Male Care-givers in Late Colonial India" at the annual meeting of the American Historical Association, Atlanta, January 2016. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2016
"A Domestic Worker in Delhi Between Past and Present?" at European University Institute, Florence, Italy.
(Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2014
"Fathering the Nation: The Idea and Practice of Fatherhood in Late Colonial India." Men at Home Conference. University of Urbino. Italy. (Selection based on anonymized proposals through a consultation with the U.K. co-editors (Lynn Abrams, Eleanor Gordon and Alex Shepard) of the journal Gender and History. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2014
"Locating Children in Indian History: Historicity and Historiography at a Glance." Research and Realities: Children in Asian History in Japan, China, and India Symposium. Temple University. Philadelphia. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2014
International key speaker, Roundtable on Women and Gender Labor History. Berkshires Conference on Women's History. University of Toronto. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2014
"A Son, a Husband, and a Father: Familiar and Familial Rabindranath Tagore as Revealed Through His Self-writing and Correspondences." Commemorating the 80th Birthday and Contribution of Historian S.N. Mukherjee. University of Sydney. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2013
"Multiple Childhoods: Children and Fathers From Poor Families of Colonial Bengal, India." Annual Conference of Social Science History Association. Chicago. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2013
"Subalternity and Fatherhood: Father-Child Experience at the Crossroads of the Empire, Nineteenth and Early-Twentieth-Century India." Biennial Conference of Society for the History of Children and Youth. Nottingham University. England. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2013
"Writing Children, Writing Selves: Recuperating Children and Fathers From a Celebrated Author of Late Colonial Bengal, India." Conference on Children, Childhood and Youth in the British World: Historical Perspectives. King's College, University of London. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2013
"Colonization and Domestic Service: A View From Present Day India" keynote presentation. Colonization and Domestic Service: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives International Research Symposium. University of Newcastle, Australia. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2012
"Exploring Emotional History: Everyday Practices of Fathers and Children in Colonial India." Childhood, Youth and Emotions in Modern History International Conference, organized by the Center for the History of Emotions at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2012
"Fathers in a Motherland: Child Marriage, Sexuality, and National Health in Bengali Periodicals of Nineteenth-century India." Annual Meeting of the Association of Asian Studies. Toronto. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2012
"Cautioning the Future Generation: Health and Hygiene in the Scientific Discourse of 'Fathers' of Late Nineteenth-century India." Berkshires Conference on Women's History. University of Massachusetts, Amherst. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2011
"Cautioning the Future Generation: Health and Hygiene in the Scientific Discourse of Fathers of Late Nineteenth Century India." Berkshires Conference on Women's History. University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Upcoming.
(Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2011
"Indian Children at the Crossroads: The Colonial Experience and the Cautionary Discourse of Indian Fathers." Society for the History of Children and Youth Annual Conference. Barnard College. New York. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2011
"Reversing the Gaze: The Question of Fathers and Fatherhood in Colonial Bengal." School of Women's Studies, Jadavpur University. Kolkata, India. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2010
"Children At-Risk? Disciplining and Fatherhood in Colonial India." Annual conference of the Society for the History of Children and Youth. University of California, Berkeley. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2009
Commentator, "Translated Feminisms: China and Elsewhere" workshop. Columbia University. New York. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2009
"A Life Less Ordinary and Uneven Developments in the Life of Women Domestics in India." Annual Meeting of the American Historical Association. Washington, D.C. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2008
"A Life Less Ordinary--Reading the Life of Baby Halder and Tracing the Trajectory of Domestic Service in India." Waged Domestic Work and Making of the Modern World Conference. University of Warwick, England; and "Where Have the Mothers Gone? The Changing History of Children and Childcare in India?" From the World of Wet Nurses to the Networks of Family Day Care Providers: Childcare Provided by Non-Relatives Working in the Domestic Sphere International Conferece. University of Fribourg, Switzerland. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2008
"The Father and the Child: Fatherhood as a Vector of Masculinity in Colonial India?" European Social Science and History Conference. Lisbon, Portugal; and "A Life Less Ordinary and Uneven Developments in the Life of Women Domestics in India." Annual Meeting of the American Historical Association. Washington, D.C. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2008
"Where Have the Mothers Gone? The Changing History of Children and Childcare in India" From the World of Wet Nurses to the Networks of Family Day Care Providers: Childcare Provided by Non-relatives Working in the Domestic Sphere International Conference. University of Fribourg. Switzerland. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2008
Professional Leadership
Ph.D. Advisory Committee of Poushali Bhadury, doctoral student in English at the University of Florida (2013-Present)
(Professional Leadership: Committee Service) 2017
Endowed Chair in Women's and Gender Studies, Brooklyn College of CUNY (2016-18)
(Professional Leadership: Organizational Leadership Position) 2016
External Examiner of Ph.D. (Arts) thesis of Ms. Anindita Ghosh, School of Women?s and Gender Studies, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India.
(Professional Leadership: Committee Service) 2015
Moderator of the panel for British Women Writers Conference organized by the CUNY Graduate Center (June 2014)
(Professional Leadership: Public Service) 2014
Co-organizer of panels and programs celebrating works and achievement of Professors Barbara Ramusack and Geraldine Forbes at the 42nd Annual South Asia Conference, University of Madison, Wisconsin. (Professional Leadership: Public Service) 2013
Chair and organizer, "Childcare in Global and Comparative Perspective" panel, European Social Science and History Conference, Ghent, Belgium. (Professional Leadership: Public Service) 2010
