Research Interests for Jessica Namakkal

My research focuses on the era, and theories, of decolonization in the 20th-century. I have researched and written about the colonial, decolonial, and postcolonial relationships between France and India, paying particular attention to how the experiences of the people in the French colonies in India challenge the dominant narrative of Indian independence and the "end" of the colonial era. I also work on the question of how decolonization has shaped modern life in Europe, through experiences of postcolonial migrations and global tourism. The manuscript I am currently working on seeks to expand understandings of decolonization from an isolated relationship between metropole and colony to a global context.

Recent Publications

1. Namakkal, J, Unsettling Utopia The Making and Unmaking of French India (June, 2021), pp. 256 pages, ISBN 0231197691 [abs]
2. Bray, M; Namakkal, J; Riccò, G; Roubinek, E, Editors’ introduction, Radical History Review, vol. 2020 no. 138 (January, 2020), pp. 1-9 [doi]
3. Namakkal, J, Decolonizing marriage and the family: The lives and letters of Ida, benoy, and Indira sarkar, Journal of Women'S History, vol. 31 no. 2 (January, 2019), pp. 124-147, Project Muse [doi] [abs]
4. Namakkal, J, The Terror of Decolonization: Exploring French India's Goonda Raj, Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies, vol. 19 no. 3 (April, 2017), pp. 338-357, Taylor & Frances [doi] [abs]
5. Namakkal, J, European dreams, Tamil land: Auroville and the paradox of a postcolonial Utopia, Journal of the Study of Radicalism, vol. 6 no. 1 (January, 2012), pp. 59-88, Johns Hopkins University Press [doi]