Projects per year
Personal profile
Research interests
Contact
Office: Rm 1.01 26/27 St Michael's Park
Postal address: 7 Woodland Road, Bristol, BS8 1TB
Email: sumita.mukherjee@bristol.ac.uk
Twitter: @smukherjee_hist
My research focuses on the transnational mobility of South Asians in the imperial era (nineteenth and twentieth century) i.e. the movement of men and women from the Indian subcontinent to other parts of the world, and also their return back to India. Much of my attention has been on how travel and the colonial encounter for migrants in Britain has had an effect on social and political identities including race, class, gender and religion.
My first book, Nationalism, Education and Migrant Identities: The England-Returned, published in 2009, discussed the politicisation of Indian students at British universities in the early twentieth century and the impact their return to India had on the nationalist movement.
My second book, Indian Suffragettes: Female Identities and Transnational Networks, was published with Oxford University Press in 2018. Funded by an AHRC Early Career Leadership Fellowship, it looked at the activities of Indian campaigners for the female vote around the world, and how this had an impact on campaigns in the Indian subcontinent in the first half of the twentieth century.
I have written widely on the networks and reception to South Asian migrants in Britain, or on women's rights in the Indian subcontinent. My current research is centred around the global migration and mobility of Indian children in the nineteenth and twentieth century. I am also currently working on two Arts and Humanities Research Council funded projects: 'Mariners: Religion, Race and Empire in British Ports, 1801-1914' (AH/W009803/1) and 'Remaking Britain: South Asian Networks and Connections, 1830s to the present' (AH/X001520/1).
I have been interviewed on radio and television in relation to my research. I have curated and advised on a number of exhibitions relating to South Asian contributions to British life, and was also one of the designers and editors of an online database on South Asians in Britain (which we are currently updating to relaunch in 2025). I have worked with the Historical Association and Runnymede Trust, providing podcasts and web resources for schools relating to migration histories. I have been involved in a number of public events and policy work relating to my research on migration and on Indian 'suffragettes', especially during the 2018 centenary of the partial award of votes to women in Britain. More details on some of my interviews and blogs I have written can be found on my personal website.
I am a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and one of the Deputy Editors of the journal Women's History Review.
Teaching
Before coming to Bristol in 2016, I had taught at six other UK universities (Cambridge, De Montfort, Glasgow, King's College London, London School of Economics and Oxford). I have served as external examiner for BA and MA programmes at three other UK universities. I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
In 2018-19 I was one of the course directors on the Foundation Year in Arts and Humanities, a pre-degree programme which values personal experience and potential over A-Levels. I teach on courses at all levels (undergraduate and postgraduate) relating to the history of Britain, the British Empire, the Indian subcontinent, and social, gender and public history more broadly.
Research Supervision
I supervised two PhD students to completion at the University of Glasgow. One on postcolonial British business interests, the other on British influences on Indian fashion. I would be happy to supervise and advise students interested in doing PhDs in areas relating to nineteenth and twentieth century South Asia and the British Empire, Indian indenture, or Black and Asian British History, with particular reference to migration, gender, representation, nationalism or identity. Please do get in touch to discuss ideas.
Structured keywords and research groupings
- Migration Mobilities Bristol
- Centre for Black Humanities
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- 1 Similar Profiles
Network
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Remaking Britain: South Asian Networks and Connections, 1830s to the Present
Mukherjee, S., Stadtler, F. C. J. & Ahmed, R.
1/01/23 → 30/09/25
Project: Research
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Empowering Audiences through Street Performance
Mukherjee, S., Jordan, L. & Cole, T.
24/02/22 → 31/07/22
Project: Research
Research output
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[Review] Indians in London: From the Birth of the East India Company to Independent India, by Arup K. Chatterjee
Mukherjee, S., Oct 2022, In: English Historical Review.Research output: Contribution to journal › Book/Film/Article review (Academic Journal)
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Mobility, Race and the Politicisation of Indian Students in Britain before the Second World War
Mukherjee, S., 8 Sep 2022, In: History of Education. 51, 4, p. 560-577 18 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article (Academic Journal) › peer-review
Open AccessFile37 Downloads (Pure) -
Indian Child Migration in the British Empire
Mukherjee, S., 10 Aug 2021, In: History Compass. 19, 8, 10 p., e12687.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article (Academic Journal) › peer-review
Activities
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External Examiner on BA History De Montfort University
Sumita Mukherjee (Examiner)
Oct 2021 → Sep 2025Activity: Examination types › External Examination and Supervision
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Women's History Review (Journal)
Sumita Mukherjee (Editor)
Oct 2019 → …Activity: Publication peer-review and editorial work types › Editorial activity
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Institute of Commonwealth Studies (External organisation)
Sumita Mukherjee (Advisor)
2018 → 2022Activity: Membership types › Membership of external research organisation