Professor Aishika Chakraborty

Aishika Chakraborty is Professor and Director of the School of Women’s Studies, Jadavpur University. Her research interests span from the gendered history of the Hindu widows of colonial Bengal to the many journeys of women dancers from colonial to postcolonial Bengal. An interdisciplinary scholar, Aishika’s research straddles gender history, dance history and feminist performance. Her monograph, Widows of Colonial Bengal: Gender, Morality and Cultural Representation (2023), won the Hiralal Gupta Memorial Award for the best book by a woman historian at the Indian History Congress (2023). Her other publications include Ranjabati: A Dancer and her World(edited, 2008), The Moving Space: Women in Dance (co-edited, 2017), KolkatarNach: SamakalinNagarnritya (2018) and Kolkatar Cabaret: Bangali, Younataebang Miss Shefali (2019).