Neelashree Dasgupta

Email: n.dasgupta@qmul.ac.uk

PhD project

Place Making in the city: The Transnational Chinese community and Calcutta's Chinatown c. 1911-1960

The project explores the Chinatown of Calcutta from 1911 to the 1960s and its role in the broader global history of South Asia. It examines the spatial changes during the transition from urban colonial Calcutta to post-colonial Calcutta in India, focusing on how Calcutta's Chinatown emerges as a real and imagined place within the metropole and how this image persisted in post-colonial India. 1911-1960s is a significant timeframe in South Asian history marked by social and political ruptures like the 'formal decolonisation' and formation of nation-states across Asia.

Supervisors

Dr. Chris Moffat, Department of History, QMUL
Dr. Ria Kapoor, Department of History, QMUL
Dr. Kavita Datta, Department of Geography and Environmental Sciences, QMUL

Funding

Queen Mary University of London HSS Studentship

Research Interests

I am interested in South Asian History, urban History, histories of citizenship issues, histories of migration and immigrations.

Academic Background

I did my undergraduate and postgraduate (M.A) in History from Presidency University, Kolkata, India, followed by an M.Phil in Social Sciences from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Guwahati, India.

Conference presentations

Paper presented at the Fifth Annual Ireland India Institute South Asia Conference
titled “Homing Desire and Identity Crisis: The Anglo-Indians of Kolkata from Screen to Reality” on 29th of April, 2022
Paper presented at ICAS 13: Crossways of Knowledge 28 July-1 August 2024, paper titled "Politics of Representation of the Anglo- Indians: A case study of West Bengal (1970-2020)” Paper Presented at QMUL and Basel University Exchange titled “Not Found” or “Missing” Documents: The Role of Archives in Shaping Histories of the Chinese Community in India, 19th March, 2026