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Ishita Dey

Assistant Professor
PhD (University of Delhi, 2016)

Contact Details

ishita(at)sau.int
South Asian University ,Rajpur Rd, Maidan Garhi, New Delhi, Delhi 110068
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Profile

I am currently teaching the following courses: Social Stratification, Gender and Society in South Asia, Politics of Food and Foodways, and Intimacies as part of the MA Curriculum. I have followed the social history of sweetness, focusing on histories of sweetmaking and craftsmanship in Bangladesh and West Bengal. The Manuscript tentatively titled Sweet Excess is under completion. Recently, I have started to work on infrastructure and social mobility with a focus on migrant journeys and as part of this I have recently completed a research project on Journeys and Internal Migrant Workers: An Ethnographic Study of Railway Connectivity supported by Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group.

I am part of two collaborative research projects one focussing on gender and food and the other on travel. I am co anchoring a research project on Gastrofeminism (with Dr Debarati Sen, University of Houston) and Dr Sohni Chakrabarti, University of St Andrews). Gastrofeminism is an interdisciplinary special issue that considers food central to diverse feminist stories of agency, contestations and transformation. It archives challenges, resistances, pedagogies, and new embodiments of an emerging radical future.

Professor Rukmini Sen of School of Liberal Studies at Ambedkar University Delhi and I started a collaborative research platform around the thematic – Anthropology of Travel to critically examine more socio-political-cultural connections to travel. What are the connections between arrival to the field, knowing/immersing with people/cultures, and a genre of travelogues describing the journey and consequent transformations? How is arrival different from dwelling and how is destination different from traveling? How much of travel is about being an empathetic learner? It is keeping all the above possibilities as a background we have organized four workshops and launched an educational podcast series – Travel Matters.

In the past, I have co-anchored an art research exhibit on Smells of Delhi as part of a commissioned commissioned collaborative art research project on smells by Kiran Nadar Museum of Art. I am keen to teach and collaborate on research themes of food, senses and infrastructure in South Asia.

Qualifications

  • Ph.D. in Sociology, Department of Sociology, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi, 2016.
           Dissertation title: Production, Caste, and Ritual in the ‘Bengali’ Sweet Industry

  • M.Phil Sociology, Department of Sociology, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi, 2008.            
           Dissertation title:  Migration and Entrepreneurship: Chinese Community in Kolkata

  • M.A. in Sociology, Department of Sociology, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi, 2003-2005.
  • B.A. in English, Miranda House, University of Delhi, 2000-2003.

Research Interests

  • Gender, Food, Labour, Migration and Senses

Recent Publications

  • 2022. ‘Who Owns Bogurar Doi? An Ethnography of Placemaking and Craftsmanship in Bangladesh’, Gastronomica  22 (3): 35–45. https://doi.org/10.1525/gfc.2022.22.3.35
  • 2021. ‘Cadbury weds Mishti: Fusion, Taste and Selling Authenticity’, International Journal of South Asian Studies 11 :47-60 (https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/browse/ijsas/list/-char/en)
  • 2021. ‘Smells, intimate labour and domestic work in Delhi, India’, The Senses and Society 16 (3): 339-350. Online ISSN: 1745-8935
  • 2021. ‘Trust’, Sociality and the Pandemic’, Society and Culture in South Asia 7(1):11-15.
  • 2021. ‘On Pandemic Imaginary. An Interview with Christos Lynteris’, Society and Culture in South Asia 7(1) 175–180.
  • 2021. ‘ Trust and Everyday Healthcare at a Resettlement Colony in Delhi’, Refugee Watch 57 :34-43.
  • 2020. “Fighting” COVID-19 with Anti-Corona Sandesh’. Gastronomica: The Journal for Food Studies 3:111-112, ISSN 1529-3262.
  • 2015. ‘Beyond zoning: India’s corridors of ‘development’ and new frontiers of capital’ (Co-authored). The South Atlantic Quarterly 114(1) :153-170, ISSN 0038-2876
  • 2010. ‘State of Research on Forced Migration in the East and North-East’ (with Geetisha Dasgupta) in Economic and Political Weekly, Vol 25(21): 37-41
  • 2009. ‘On the Margins of Citizenship: Principles of Care and Rights of the Residents of the Ranaghat Women’s Home, Nadia District’, Refugee Watch 33 :1-22.

Recent Books

  • Book Manuscript Sweet Excess: Biography of Sweet Encounters in West Bengal and Bangladesh (under review).
  • 2013. Co-authored with Ranabir Samaddar and Suhit K. Sen. Beyond Kolkata. Rajarhat and the Dystopia of Urban Imagination. New Delhi: Routledge. ISBN: 9781134931378 1134931379.
  • 2011.Co- edited book with Sabyasachi Basu Ray Chaudhury. 2011. Sustainability of Rights after Globalisation. Sage : Delhi. ISBN 9788132106401(HB).
  • Chapter in Edited volume, encyclopedia
  • 2021. ‘Village Studies and Possibilities of a ‘multispecies’ ethnography’ in Remembering India’s villages. Edited by Santosh K. Singh. Delhi: Aakar books. ISBN 978-93-5002-720-2
  • 2021. ‘Social Distancing, “Touch-Me-Not” and the Migrant Worker’ in India’s Migrant Workers and the Pandemic. Edited By Ritajyoti Bandyopadhyay, Paula Banerjee, Ranabir Samaddar. London: Routledge.  ISBN 9781032158921
  • 2018. ‘Intimacy, Domesticity and Migrant Labour’ in Migrants and the Neoliberal City. Edited by Ranabir Samaddar. Delhi : Orient Blackswan. Pp 282-306 ISBN 978-93-5287-290-9
  • 2018 ‘Health, Standardisation and Bengali sweets’ in Farm to Fingers : The Culture and Politics of Food in Contemporary India. Edited by Kiranmayi Bhushi. Delhi : Cambridge University Press Pp 103-127 ISBN: 9781108416290
  • 2016. ‘Sociality’ and Representations of Everyday Life of Sweetshops and Sweets’ in Pratyaha. Everyday Lifeworlds. Dilemmas, Contestations. Edited by Prasanta Ray and Nandini Ghosh. Delhi : Primus Books. Pp 259-277. ISBN 9384082406.
  • 2015. 'Ledikeni' in The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets. New York: OUP. pp 398-399.
  • 2015. 'Rosogolla' in The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets. New York: OUP. pp 580-581.
  • 2015. 'Sandesh' in The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets. New York: OUP. pp 592.
  • 2015. 'Temple sweets' in The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets. New York: OUP. Pp 734
  • 2011. ‘Introduction’ in Sustainability of Rights after Globalisation. Edited by Sabyasachi Basu Ray Chaudhury and Ishita Dey. Sage : Delhi. Pp xi-xxi. ISBN 9788132106401(HB).
  • 2011. ‘Negotiating Rights : The Case of a Special Economic Zone’ in  Sustainability of Rights after Globalisation. Edited by Sabyasachi Basu Ray Chaudhury and Ishita Dey. Sage : Delhi. Pp 177-205. ISBN 9788132106401(HB).
  • 2010. ‘Partitioned Lives : Ranaghat Women’s Home, Nadia District, West Bengal’ in Gender, Mobility and Citizenship in Asia. Edited by Mikako Iwatake. Delhi : Renvall Institute Publications. ISBN 9789521063657.
  • Articles in digital platforms such as online repositories, research platforms etc.
  • 2021. ‘Mistisukh. The politics of Sensory Labour and Sweetmaking in Bengal’ https://thirdlanemag.com/en/mistisukh-the-politics-of-sensory-labour-and-sweetmaking-in-bengal-ishita-dey-suman-mukherjee/, 29 October 2021.
  • 2021. ‘Notes from a ‘waiting room’ in a ‘Digital’ India: states, covid-19 and refusal’ https://www.connessioniprecarie.org/2021/05/26/notes-from-a-waiting-room-in-a-digital-india-states-covid-19-and-refusal/
  • 2020. “Book Symposium Tasting Qualities” for Allegra Lab, https://allegralaboratory.net/book-symposium-tasting-qualities-3/, 23 October 2020.
  • 2017. Coordinated a module on “Sweet tradition of Bengal” for the online repository archive – sahapedia. For details see “Crafting Sweets in Bengal”, https://www.sahapedia.org/sweet-traditions-of-bengal.
  • 2012. “Field/s as sites of encounter”, http://transitlabour.asia/blogs/encounter, 30 October 2012.
  • 2011. “New Town and Labour in Transit”, http://transitlabour.asia/blogs/newtown, 29 July 2011.

       Book Review

  • 2018. “Book Review: Solomon, H. 2016. Metabolic Living: Food, Fat and the Absorption of Illness in India.” Contributions to Indian Sociology . Vol 52 ( 3) ,October 2018. 368–70.
  • 2012. “Book Review: Janeja, M. 2010. Transactions in Taste. The Collaborative Lives of Everyday Bengali Food.  Delhi: Routledge. Food, Culture and Society. Vol 15(1), March 2012. pp161-162.
  • 2010. Mathur, H.M. (eds). 2008. India: Social Development Report 2008. Development and Displacement. Delhi: Oxford University Press. Refugee Watch Issue No 35, June 2010. Calcutta Research Group : Kolkata.


Awards & Honours

  • Visiting Fellow, Urban Futures Platform, University of Vienna 1-31 October 2023.

Last Updated : 06 Dec 2023