Rashmi Banerjee

Contact

Field & Specialties

Modern South Asia
Britain and its Empire
Global Legal History
Women, Gender and Sexuality

Education

M.Phil. Modern Indian History, Jawaharlal Nehru University, 2021

Thesis: "Tales from a Colonial Bench": Debates on the Judicial Profession in Bengal, c. 1861-1919

M.A. Modern Indian History, Jawaharlal Nehru University, 2018

B.A. History, Jadavpur University, 2016

Biography

I am a Ph.D. candidate at the Department of History, specializing in modern South Asia. My doctoral project examines governmental attitudes towards infanticide and abortion in late nineteeth and early twentieth century India. It explores social, medical and legal debates on women who were accused of infanticide and abortion to understand how their criminality was shaped in the colonial context. 

I joined the Department of History at UVa in 2021 and received my Master's degree in 2023. My Master's thesis focused on medico-legal discourses on abortion and its criminalization in colonial India. I have also received a graduate certificate in Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies at UVa. I am currently conducting archival research in India and the U.K for my doctoral dissertation. 

Awards & Honors

 

  • Graduate Global Research Grant, Center for Global Inquiry & Innovation, University of Virginia, Spring 2023
  • WGS Graduate Research Grant, Women, Gender & Sexuality Department, University of Virginia, 2023
  • DGS Fall Conference Travel Award, Department of History, University of Virginia, Spring 2023
  • Summer Research Grant, Department of History, University of Virginia, 2023
  • Dumas Malone Graduate Research Fellowship, Office of the Vice-President for Research, University of Virginia, Fall 2024- Spring 2025

 

Courses Taught

Graduate Teaching Assistant for the following courses:

HIEA 2031: Modern China (Fall 2022)

HIEU 3021: Greek and Roman Warfare (Spring 2023)

HIEU 2004: Nationalism in Europe (Fall 2023)