Gunja SenGupta
Professor and Department Chairperson
History
Location: 1105 Boylan Hall
Phone: 718.951.5000 x2806
Fax: 718.951.4504
Email:
Gunja SenGupta's current interests lie in 19th-century U.S. and slavery/abolition in the Indian Ocean; sectional conflict; African American and women's history. Her first book, For God and Mammon: Evangelicals and Entrepreneurs, Masters and Slaves in Territorial Kansas(1996), dealt with sectional conflict and consensus. In From Slavery to Poverty: The Racial Origins of Welfare in New York, 1840-1918 (2009), she explored welfare debates as sites for negotiating identities of race, gender, and nation. Her articles have appeared in numerous journals including the American Historical Review, Journal of Negro (African American) History, Civil War History, Kansas History, and Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art. Her current projects, funded by Mellon, Whiting, Wolfe, and Tow fellowships/grants, include one on 19th-century United States and slavery/abolition/empire in the Indian Ocean; and another on the history, memory and films of the Black Atlantic.
Areas of Expertise:
SenGupta teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on the Civil War and Reconstruction, African American history, U.S. women's history and comparative slavery. From 2007 through spring 2012, SenGupta served as the director of the Macaulay Honors College at Brooklyn College.
Books and Publications
Slavery on the Periphery: The Kansas-Missouri Border in the Antebellum and Civil War Eras. By Kristen Epps. Early American Places (Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 2016), in Register of the Kentucky Historical Society (forthcoming) (Books and Publications: Book Review) 2018
"The Blackamoor as Voyager: Re-Significations in Transit from Old Worlds to Estevanico, Abraham Lincoln, Bayou Ballads, and William Attaway," in Awam Amkpa ed., Re-Significations: European Blackamoors, Africana Readings (Rome: Postcart, 2016), 75-93.
(Books and Publications: Chapter) 2016
Review of America in the Eve of Civil War. Eds. Edward L. Ayers and Carolyn R. Martin. Charlottesville, Va., and London: University of Virginia Press, 2010. Journal of Southern History, May: 481. (Books and Publications: Book Review) 2013
Review of Party Over Section: The Rough and Ready Presidential Election of 1848 (Lawrence, Kan.: University Press of Kansas, 2009). Presidential Studies Quarterly. (Books and Publications: Book Review) 2011
Review of Race and Radicalism in the Union Army, by Mark A. Lause (Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, 2009). Journal of the Civil War Era. (Books and Publications: Book Review) 2011
Review of The Black Citizen-Soldiers of Kansas, 1864-1901, by Roger D. Cunningham (Columbia, Mo.: University of Missouri Press, 2008). Journal of Southern History. (Books and Publications: Book Review) 2011
SenGupta, Gunja and Awam Amkpa. "Picturing Homes and Border Crossings: The Slavery Trope in Films of the Black Atlantic." Paths of the Atlantic Slave Trade: Interactions, Identities, and Images. Ed. Ana-Lucia Araujo. New York: Cambria Press. 359-87. (Books and Publications: Chapter) 2011
SenGupta, Gunja and Awam Amkpa. "History in Ousmane Sembène's Guelwaar and Ceddo." Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art, Fall: 14-21. (Books and Publications: Other Article) 2010
From Slavery to Poverty: The Racial Origins of Welfare in New York, 1840-1918. New York: New York University Press, 2009; paperback, 2010. (Books and Publications: Book) 2009
Seeding Civil War: Kansas in the National News, 1854-1858, by Craig Miner (Lawrence, Kan.: University Press of Kansas, 2008). American Historical Review. (Books and Publications: Book Review) 2009
Selected book reviews/review essays between 2004 and 2007 include those of/on Jacksonian Antislavery and the Politics of Free Soil, 1824-1854, by Jonathan Earle (Chapel Hill, N.C. and London: University of North Carolina Press, 2004), in Journal of Southern History; Fanatics and Fire-Eaters: Newspapers and the Coming of the Civil War, by Lorman A. Ratner and Dwight L. Teeter Jr. (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2003), in Journal of Southern History; and Bleeding Kansas, by Nicole Etcheson (Lawrence, Kan.: University Press of Kansas, 2004), in Great Plains Quarterly. (Books and Publications: Other Article) 2007
"Bleeding Kansas: A Review Essay." Territorial Kansas Reader. Ed. Virgil Dean. Topeka, Kan.: Kansas State Historical Society. (Books and Publications: Chapter) 2005
"Elites, Subalterns, and American Identities: A Case Study of African American Benevolence." American Historical Review 109, October: 1104-39. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2004
Selected book reviews/review essays between 2001 and 2004 include those of Covenant With Color, by Craig Steven Wilder (New York: Columbia University Press, 2000), in Journal of American Ethnic History; Missouri's Confederate: Claiborne Fox Jackson and the Creation of Southern Identity in the Border West, by Christopher Phillips (Columbia, Mo.: University of Missouri Press, 2000), in Journal of Southern History; and Democracy and Slavery, by James Simeone (DeKalb, Ill.: Northern Illinois University Press, 2000), in Annals of Iowa. (Books and Publications: Other Article) 2003
"'Black and Dangerous?' African-American Working Poor Perspectives on Juvenile Reform and Welfare in Victorian New York, 1840-1890." Journal of Negro History LXXXVI, Spring: 99-131. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2001
"Bleeding Kansas." Kansas History 24, Winter 2001-02: 318-41. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2001
Selected book reviews/review essays between 1997 and 2000 include those of Slavery and the American West, by Michael A. Morrison (Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press, 1997), in Journal of Southern History; Building and Breaking Families in the American West, by Glenda Riley (Albuquerque, N.M.: University of New Mexico Press, 1996) in Journal of the West; Dred Scott v. Sanford, by Paul Finkelman (Boston: Bedford Books, 1997) in The Georgia Historical Quarterly; and Portrait of an Abolitionist, by Charles E. Heller (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1996) in Kansas History. (Books and Publications: Other Article) 2000
"Alice Paul." Reader's Guide to American History. Ed. Peter Parish. London: Fitzroy Dearborn. (Books and Publications: Other Article) 1997
"Angelina and Sarah Grimke." Reader's Guide to American History. Ed. Peter Parish. London: Fitzroy Dearborn. (Books and Publications: Other Article) 1997
"Women's Issues in India." (Texas) Commerce Journal (newspaper), April 2. (Books and Publications: Other Article) 1997
For God and Mammon: Evangelicals and Entrepreneurs, Masters and Slaves in Territorial Kansas, 1854-1860. Athens, Ga.: University of Georgia Press. (Books and Publications: Book) 1996
"'A Model New England State': Northeastern Antislavery in Territorial Kansas, 1854-1860." Civil War History 29, March: 31-46. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 1993
"Servants for Freedom: Christian Abolitionists in Territorial Kansas, 1854-1858." Kansas History 16, Autumn: 200-13. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 1993
Awards, Honors and Fellowships
Co-convener, "How Migration Makes Meaning: A Conference on Slavery and Abolition in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans." New York University Abu Dhabi Institute. March 31-April 2. (Grants and Fellowships) 2014
Andrew W. Mellon Fellow-in-Residence, Center for the Humanities, Graduate Center, City University of New York, 2012-13. Project: "Slavery as 'Poor Law': Transoceanic Debates over Poverty, Patriarchy and Public Charity." (Grants and Fellowships) 2012
Wolfe Institute Fellowship. (Grants and Fellowships) 2006
Claire and Leonard Tow Professorship. (Awards and Honors) 2005
PSC-CUNY Research Grant. (Grants and Fellowships) 2004
Selected a Broeklundian favorite professor by graduating seniors of Brooklyn College. (Awards and Honors) 2004
Tow Travel Fellowship. (Grants and Fellowships) 2003
Mrs. Giles Whiting Fellowship. (Grants and Fellowships) 2001
PSC-CUNY Research Grant. (Grants and Fellowships) 2000
Paul W. Barrus Distinguished Faculty Award for Teaching, Texas Association of College Teachers and the Faculty Senate of Texas A & M University - Commerce. (Awards and Honors) 1998
Texas A & M / East Texas State University Organized Research Grant, 1996-97. (Grants and Fellowships) 1996
Texas A & M / East Texas State University Organized Research Grant. (Grants and Fellowships) 1991
Research Activities
Visiting Scholar, New York University, Abu Dhabi. 2014
Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums
"Africans, the 'Greek Slave' and the 'Libyan Sibyl': Resignifying the Mediterranean in Transatlantic Abolitionism," ReSignifications: The Black Mediterranean," University of Palermo, June 2018 (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2018
"Recreating Community: The Black Migration from Farm to City," Fulbright Institute on the Civilization of the United States, June 2018 (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2018
"REVERBERATIONS: THE URBAN ATLANTIC, SLAVERY, AND "FREE COTTON EXPERIMENTS IN 19TH CENTURY BRITISH INDIA, " at Mariners, Renegades, and Capitalism: The Workshop, New York University, 2018 (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2018
"Genealogical Resources as a Window to Transnational Histories of Slavery," Keynote lecture, African American Historical and Genealogical Society Annual Genealogical Conference, Harlem 2017 (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2017
"Migration as Women's Rights: Stories from Comparative Slavery," Conference on Women and Migrations, New York University, Florence, 2017 (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2017
"Recreating Community: The Black Migration from Farm to City," Fulbright Institute on the Civilization of the United States, Multinational Institute of American Studies, Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, New York University, 2017, (Variations on this topic also presented before the same forum in 2016, 2015, 2012, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2001)
(Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2017
"Tobacco, tobacco! Sojourns, Symbols, and Slaves in the Shaping of the Modern World," Empire of Smoke: The Legacy of Tobacco, James B. Duke House, New York, 2017 (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2017
"Through the Looking Glass of Empire: Mississippi Overseers, Slavery, and 'Free' Cotton Experiments in India," New York Global Asia Colloquium, 2016 (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Contributed Talk) 2016
with Awam Amkpa, "Between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans: Fugitive Slaves as Refugees and Migrants," Black Portraitures Conference, South Africa, 2016 (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2016
"Freedom Movements: From the Americas to Africa," Black History Month panel discussion, New York University-Abu Dhabi, 2015
(Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2015
"The Transnational Blackamoor": Conference, Black Portraitures: The Black Body in the West, Florence, Italy, 2015
(Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2015
"Transnational History as Epistolary Novel: Archives and the Comparative Politics of Producing Narratives of Slavery and Freedom in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans," American Historical Association, 2015
(Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2015
Discussant, "Distant Connections,"Conference, "Russia?s Races," Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia, 2015
(Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2015
Discussant, "Toponyms," Conference, "Rethinking Historical Space," and Conference, "Cosmopolitan Currents in the Indian Ocean," both at New York University-Abu Dhabi, 2015
(Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2015
SenGupta, Gunja and Awam Amkpa, moderators. "Oceans in Literary Imagination and Historical Consciousness: Conversations With Caryl Phillips and Sugata Bose." New York University Abu Dhabi Institute. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2014
SenGupta, Gunja and Awam Amkpa. "Sojourners, Sultans and Subalterns: Anglo-American Engagements with/in the Indian Ocean." New York University Abu Dhabi. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2014
"Fugitive Slaves and Concubines in the Western Indian Ocean." Social Science History Association. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2013
"Images of Uplift: The Visual Politics of African American Reform in the Progressive Era." Black Portraiture[s]: The Black Body in the West, NYU-Harvard Conference. Paris. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2013
Chair, "Representing the Irrepresentable: Narratives and Visual Images of Slavery, Forced Labor, and Genocide." American Historical Association. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2013
"Recreating Community: The Black Migration From Farm to City." Fulbright Institute on the Civilization of the United States. New York University. 2012, 2010, 2009, 2008. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2012
Talk back, "Between the Color Line" (play) Irondale Ensemble. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2012
"Fugitives and Matriarchs: Comparative and Transnational Perspectives on Slavery in the Atlantic and Indian Ocean Worlds." Forum on Migration. Barnard College. New York. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2011
"Slavery: History and Memory." Black Month History Month Lecture. Hanson Place Seventh Day Adventist Church. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2011
"Enslaved Women and Kinship in the United States and India: Comparative Perspectives." International Federation for Research in Women's History, in conjunction with 21st International Congress of Historical Sciences. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2010
"From Slavery to Poverty: The Racial Origins of Welfare in New York, 1840-1918." Gotham Center for New York City History Forum. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2010
"Ulysses S. Grant and Black America." Grant's Tomb (National Park Service). New York. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2010
SenGupta, Gunja and Awam Amkpa. "Picturing Homes and Border Crossings: The Slavery Trope in Films of the Black Atlantic." American Historical Association. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2010
"Grant, Lee and the Destruction of Slavery in Civil War America." Grant and Lee Exhibition. New York Historical Society. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2008
"Intimate Portraits: African Americans in Antebellum Greenwich Village." Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2008
"'Slave and 'Daughter': Representations of Slavery and Prostitution in Colonial Bengal Presidency." Interrogating Boundaries Symposium. Fairleigh Dickinson University. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2007
"Who Owns Brooklyn? From Farms to Brownstones." Brooklyn Historical Society, sponsored by Weeksville Heritage Society and Brooklyn Historical Society. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2007
"Making Multimedia History." CUNY Information Technology Conference. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2006
"African American Migration." Fulbright Institute on the Civilization of the United States, New York University. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2005
"Great Migration." Fulbright Institute on the Civilization of the United States, New York University. New York, 2003 and 2004. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2004
"American Identity and the 'Culture of Poverty': African American Women and Social Welfare." Berkshire Conference on the History of Women. University of Rochester. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 1999
"Race, Religion and Resistance: Unfree Labor in India and the American South." Columbia University Faculty Seminar on Law and Political Institutions. New York. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 1999
"African American Benevolence History From the Bottom Up: The Howard Orphanage and Industrial School, 1866-1920." Social Science History Conference. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 1998
"Total Institutions and the Women of New York's 'Dangerous Classes', 1840-1915." American Historical Association. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 1998
"Benevolence History From the Bottom Up: The Women of Hopper Home, 1840-1915." Southern Association of Women Historians. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 1997
Chair and commentator, Rewriting the Political History of Bleeding Kansas Session, Mid-America Conference on History. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Contributed Talk) 1997
Chair and commentator, Session on African American History, Southwestern Social Sciences Association. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Contributed Talk) 1997
"Islands and Bridges in the U.S. History Survey." Session on teaching innovations at the Mid-America Conference on History. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 1996
"Northeastern Antislavery in Kansas, 1854-1860." Symposium on the Civil War in Kansas, sponsored by the Kansas State Historical Society and the Kansas Humanities Council. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 1996
Chair and commentator, Session on Spain and Mexico, Southwestern Social Sciences Association. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Contributed Talk) 1996
"Abolitionism in Kansas." Symposium on the Civil War in Kansas, sponsored by the Kansas State Historical Society. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 1995
"Slavery, 'Popery' and Human Progress: Bleeding Kansas and the Coming of the Civil War." Organization of American Historians. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 1994
Co-Chair and commentator, Session on Mexico and the British Empire, Southwestern Social Sciences Association. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Contributed Talk) 1994
"A New Order in Territorial Kansas, 1854-1858." American Historical Association and the University of North Texas Teaching of History Conference. Denton, Texas. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 1993
Chair and commentator, Phi Alpha Theta Session on Latin America, Southwestern Social Sciences Association. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Contributed Talk) 1993
"Evangelicals and Entrepreneurs: Northeastern Antislavery in Territorial Kansas, 1854-1858." Mid-America Conference on History. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 1992
"Planting the 'Trophies of Free Labor': Northeastern Evangelicals and Entrepreneurs in Territorial Kansas, 1854-1860." Southern Historical Association. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 1992
"Slavery and Abolition" co-chair and commentator. Southwestern Social Sciences Association. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Contributed Talk) 1992
"Black Women and the Civil Rights Movement." American Historical Association Teaching of History Conference. Denton, Texas. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 1991
Other Professional Activities
Scholarly adviser, "In Pursuit of Freedom," a collaborative, multimedia project of the Brooklyn Historical Society, Irondale Ensemble Project and Weeksville Heritage Center. 2010
