Personal Statement:

I study and teach the social and cultural history of South Asia and British imperialism. My research explores the role of British colonialism in reshaping the agrarian frontier of eastern Bengal and the political economy of intoxicant commodities in the nineteenth and twentieth century. I am broadly interested in commodities and capital, labor history, peasant politics, popular culture, social movements, and gender and empire. My courses include introductory surveys of South Asian history, commodity history in a critical global perspective, and upper division classes on public culture with a focus on the history of caste, labor, and gender. At the graduate level, my courses cover global approaches to South Asian history, empire and decolonization, and the history of the Indian Ocean World. 

Research and Teaching Interests:

  • Modern South Asia 
  • British Imperial History
  • Indian Ocean World Studies
  • Commodity History
  • Internationalism and Marxist thought
  • Historical Methods

Selected Publications:

  • Utathya Chattopadhyaya, “Review. Samia Khatun, Australianama.” American Historical Review, 2020.
  • Utathya Chattopadhyaya, “Vulture,” “Xerus,” and “Unicorn” in Renisa Mawani and Antoinette Burton eds. Animalia: An Anti-Imperial Bestiary for Our Times (Durham: Duke University Press, 2020)
  • Utathya Chattopadhyaya, “Dagga and Prohibition: Markets, Animals, and the Imperial Contexts of Knowledge, 1893–1925,” South African Historical Journal, 2019
  • Utathya Chattopadhyaya, “Empire and Indifference,” Victorian Literature and Culture, 2019
  • Utathya Chattopadhyaya, “Review. Stolte and Schrikker eds. World History: A Genealogy,” Itinerario, 2019
  • Utathya Chattopadhyaya, “Labor: Identities and Time under Empire” in Kirsten McKenzie ed. A Cultural History of Western Empires in the Age of Empire 1780-1920 (London: Bloomsbury, 2018).
  • Utathya, Chattopadhyaya, Talking History: E.P. Thompson, C.L.R. James, and the Afterlives of Internationalism, Historical Reflections/Réflexions Historiques, 41(1), 2015.
  • Utathya Chattopadhyaya, “Time to move on?” Kritik, June 26, 2014.

Courses Taught:

  • Forthcoming Courses:
  • HIST 282G – Global South Asia (Spring 21)
  • Previous Courses:
  • HIST 88 – Survey of South Asian History
  • HIST 9 [Historical Investigations: Methods and Skills] – Commodity History
  • HIST 9: Commodities and Labor in Colonial South Asia 
  • HIST 189M: South Asian Public Culture
  • HIST 201C [Advanced Historical Literature]: South Asia and the Indian Ocean
  • HIST 202 – Historical Methods

Honors and Professional Activities:

  • 2020  Faculty Career Development Award     
  • 2016 Thomas and Barbara Metcalf Junior Research Fellowship in Indian History, American Institute of Indian Studies.
  • 2015  Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities (IPRH) Prize for Research in the Humanities, University of Illinois.