Sumathi Ramaswamy
| Title: | Professor |
| Office Location: | 122 Carr Building |
| Office Phone: | 684-5764 |
| Email Address: | sr76@duke.edu |
- Office Hours:
- on sabbatical in 2010
Education
- PhD University of California, Berkeley, 1992
- MA University of Pennsylvania, 1986
- M.Phil Jawaharlal Nehru University, 1984
- MA Jawaharlal Nehru University, 1982
Research Interests
I am a cultural historian of South Asia and the British empire with an interest in visual studies, the history of cartography, and gender. My book, "The Goddess and the Nation: Mapping Mother India," is forthcoming in Spring 2010 from Duke University Press. I have also edited a volume that is forthcoming from Routledge India titled "Barefoot across the Nation: Maqbool Fida Husain and the Idea of India" (September 2010). My work in popular visual history has also led me to co-establish Tasveerghar: A Digital Network of South Asian Popular Visual Culture at http://www.tasveerghar.net/. I am currently working on two new book projects. The first titled "Global Itineraries: The Indian Travels of a Worldly Object," explores the debates in colonial India about the shape and disposition of the earth in the universe. The other titled "Giving and Learning: Philanthropy and Higher Education in Modern India," charts the ethical and political impulses that directed new patterns of giving directed towards the establishment of colleges and universities across colonial India.
Awards, Honors, and Distinctions
- Senior Fellowship, American Institute of Indian Studies, June, 2010
- DPDF Co-Director, Social Science Research Council, 2009
- Visiting Fellow, Center for Women's Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, February, 2008
- Shivadasani Fellowship, Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, Trinity term, 2008
- Franklin Research Grant, American Philosophical Society, Fall 2007
- Senior Short-term Fellowship, The American Institute of Indian Studies, 2001-02
- Fellow, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, 2007-08; awarded in 2001
- Fredrick Burkhardt Residential Fellowship, American Council of Learned Societies, 2001-02
Recent Publications
Books in Progress- S. Ramaswamy, The Goddess and the Nation: Mapping Mother India (Durham, Duke University Press, Spring, 2010). [abs]
- S. Ramaswamy ed., "Barefoot across the Nation: Maqbool Fida Husain and the Idea of India" Visual and Media Histories (Routledge India, August, 2010). [abs]
- S. Ramaswamy, "Barefoot across India: An Artist and his Country" in S. Ramaswamy ed., Barefoot across the Nation: Maqbool Fida Husain and the Idea of IndiaVisual and Media Histories (Routledge India, Fall, 2010).
- S. Ramaswamy, "The Mahatma as Muse: An Image Essay on Gandhi in Popular Indian Visual Imagination" in Gayatri Sinha ed., Art and Visual Culture in India 1857-2007 (Marg Publications, 2009), 236-249.
- S. Ramaswamy, "Thinking Territory: Some Reflections" in Bed P. Giri and Prafulla Kar ed., Thinking Territory: Some Reflections (Pencraft International, Winter, 2008).