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Arunima Datta

Title: Assistant Professor

Department: History

College: College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences

Curriculum Vitae

Curriculum Vitae Link

Education

  • PhD, National University of Singapore, 2015
    Major: Southeast Asian Studies
    Dissertation: Life beyond dependency and victimhood: Immigrant Indian coolie women on rubber estates of Malaya

Current Scheduled Teaching

HIST 6000.001The Historian as Historical SubjectSpring 2025
HIST 4100.001Modern Britain Since 1830Fall 2024 Syllabus
HIST 5040.001Studies in Modern European HistoryFall 2024

Previous Scheduled Teaching

HIST 4100.001Modern Britain Since 1830Fall 2023 Syllabus SPOT
HIST 1060.001World History from the Sixteenth CenturyFall 2023 Syllabus SPOT

Published Intellectual Contributions

    Abstracts and Proceedings

  • Datta, A. (2012). Criminalizing Munniammah: Camouflaging Irresponsibility of Colonial Enterprise in Malaya. Conference Proceedings of Indian Association of Asian Pacific Studies (2012). Conference Proceedings of Indian Association of Asian Pacific Studies.
  • Datta, A. (2011). Tracing the Roots of Marginalization of Indians During the Colonial Period of Malaysia: Alienation of Bhumiputras from Bhumi by Chettiars. Indian History Congress Proceedings, (2011). Indian History Congress Proceedings (2011).
  • Datta, A. (2010). Silent Marginalization of Indian Women Migrant Labour in Colonial Malaysia. Indian History Congress Proceedings (2010). Indian History Congress Proceedings (2010).
  • Author Interview

  • Datta, A. (2021). Author Interview: Q & A with Dr Arunima Datta on Fleeting Agencies: A Social History of Indian Coolie Women in British Malaya. Singapore, ARIScope. https://ari.nus.edu.sg/ariscope/author-interview-q-a-with-dr-arunima-datta-on-fleeting-agencies-a-social-history-of-indian-coolie-women-in-british-malaya/
  • Book

  • Datta, A. (2023). Waiting on Empire: A History of Indian Traveling Ayahs in Britain. NA (NA) 320. Oxford, Oxford University Press. https://global.oup.com/academic/product/waiting-on-empire-9780192848239?cc=us&lang=en&#
  • Datta, A. (2021). Fleeting Agencies: A Social History of Indian Coolie Women in British Malaya. Cambridge University Press. https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/fleeting-agencies/7D6665787FAAB05DA94554B563615B32
  • Book Chapter

  • Datta, A. (2024). Intimate Lives on Rubber Plantations: The textures of Indian coolie relations in British Malaya. Beyond Indenture: Gender, Agency and Resistance. Cambridge University Press.
  • Datta, A. (2022). Race, Anxiety and Shopping in the Australian Outback: Indian Hawkers and Victoria's 1884 Smallpox Outbreak. Routledge Handbook of Asian Transnationalism. Routledge.
  • Datta, A. (2018). “Immorality”, Nationalism and the Colonial State in British Malaya: Indian ‘coolie’ women’s intimate lives as ideological battleground. Women's History Review. Connecting Women's Histories: The local and the global. Routledge.
  • Book Review

  • Datta, A. (2021). Datta on Singha, 'The Coolie's Great War: Indian Labor in a Global Conflict, 1914-1921. H-Asia. https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showpdf.php?id=55881
  • Datta, A. (2021). Review of Schooling Diaspora: Women, Education, and the Overseas Chinese in British Malaya and Singapore, 1850s-1960s by Karen Teoh. Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History. 22 (2) Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History.
  • Datta, A. (2021). Review of Singapore, Chinese Migration and the Making of the British Empire, 1819-67 by Stan Neal. Britain and the World. 14 (2) 191-193. Britain and the World.
  • Datta, A. (2019). Review of Gender Relations in an Indonesian Society: Bugis Practices of Sexuality and Marriage by Nurul Ilmi Idrus. 47 (3) Asian Journal of Social Studies.
  • Datta, A. (2018). Review of Cultural Politics of Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary Asia edited by Tiantian Zheng. Journal of Southeast Asian Studies. 7 (3) 512-514.
  • Datta, A. (2018). Review of Tamils and the haunting of Justice: History and recognition in Malaysia’s plantations. Journal of Southeast Asian Studies. 49 (1) 168-171. Journal of Southeast Asian Studies.
  • Datta, A. (2017). Review of Indian and Chinese Immigrant Communities: Comparative Perspectives edited by Jayati Bhattacharya and Coonoor Kripalani. Economic and Political Weekly. 52 (34)
  • Datta, A. (2016). Review of Tragic Orphans: Indians in Malaysia by Carl Vadivella Belle. 44 (3) 419-422. Asian Journal of Social Science.
  • Datta, A. (2015). Review of Where Gendered Spaces Bend: The Rubber Phenomenon in Northern Laos by Anna-Klara Lindeborg.
  • Broadcast Media

  • Datta, A. (2024). BBC Radio -Sheffield: Episode on Chai and Chat with Rav. Appeared to talk about my research on ayahs, the women’s day workshop I hosted with the Sheffield Archives on 8 March 2024 and talk about how my life inspired my work.
  • Datta, A. (2024). Race, Anxiety and Shopping in the Australian Outback: Indian Hawkers and Victoria's 1884 Smallpox Outbreak. Indian Ocean World Podcast.
  • Datta, A. (2023). The Misrepresentation of coolie women in nationalist discourses. The Swaddle. https://www.theswaddle.com/the-misrepresentation-of-indian-coolie-women-with-arunima-datta
  • Datta, A. (2023). Waiting on Empire: A History of Indian Travelling Ayahs in Britain. New Books Network Podcast in Women’s History. https://newbooksnetwork.com/waiting-on-empire
  • Datta, A. (2021). Fleeting Agencies: A Social History of Indian Coolie Women in British Malaya. https://newbooksnetwork.com/fleeting-agencies
  • Datta, A. (2021). South Asians in Britain: Sake Deen Mohamad and introduction of Shampoo in Britain. BBC4, You are Dead to Me episode. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p09xcyhg
  • Journal Article

  • Datta, A. (2024). Reading Silenced Identities through Visual Archives: Indian Travelling Ayahs in Service of the British Empire. Critical Collective.
  • Datta, A. (2023). Stranded: How Travelling Indian Ayahs negotiated War and Abandonment in Europe. Indian Journal of Gender Studies. 30 (1) 33 - 54. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/09715215221133541
  • Datta, A. (2022). Becoming Visible: Travel Documents and Travelling Ayahs in the British Empire. South Asian Studies. 38 (2) 141-160. South Asian Studies: British Association of South Asian Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/02666030.2022.2111087
  • Datta, A. (2022). Pony Up!: Managing Destitution among British Grooms from Australia in Nineteenth Century India. 122 (1) Labour History: A Journal of Labour and Social History. https://doi.org/10.3828/jlh.2022.3
  • Datta, A. (2021). Responses to Traveling Indian Ayahs in Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century Britain. Journal of Historical Geography. 71 94-103. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhg.2021.02.001
  • Datta, A. (2020). Knocker Ups: A Social History of Waking up in Victorian Britain’s Industrial Towns. Journal of Victorian Culture. 25 (3) 331-348. https://doi.org/10.1093/jvcult/vcaa013
  • Datta, A. (2017). Negotiating Gendered Spaces in Colonial Press: Wives of European Planters in British Malaya. Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History. 18 (3) 10.1353/cch.2017.0041
  • Datta, A. (2016). Immorality’, Nationalism and the Colonial State in British Malaya: Indian ‘coolie’ women’s intimate lives as ideological battleground. Women's History Review. 25 (4) 584-601. https://doi.org/10.1080/09612025.2015.1114326
  • Datta, A. (2015). Social Memory and Indian Women from Malaya and Singapore in the Rani of Jhansi Regiment. Journal of Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. 88 (2) 77-103. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26527714
  • Magazine/Trade Publication

  • Datta, A. (2022). Managing horses on the High Seas: Horse Grooms in the Service of the British Empire. Summer 2022 (2) Radical Currents, Labour Histories.
  • Datta, A. (2021). Curry tales of the Empire. Journal of Victorian Culture Online (The blog and online platform of the Journal of Victorian Culture). https://jvc.oup.com/2021/05/27/curry-tales-of-the-empire/
  • Datta, A. (2020). Shampoo Empire: Bengali Migrant’s Trade in Britain. History Today. 70 (3) 40-49. History Today.
  • Datta, A. (2020). Women in the business of waking up industrial Britain. Journal of Victorian Culture. Journal of Victorian Culture Online (The blog and online platform of the Journal of Victorian Culture).
  • Datta, A. (2019). Punkhawallahs: Keeping British India Cool. History Today. 69 (9) 54-63. History Today.

Contracts, Grants and Sponsored Research

    Fellowship

  • Datta, A., "Visiting Fellowship, Queen Mary University of London," sponsored by Queen Mary University of London, International, $5000 Funded. (2024 - 2025).
  • Datta, A. (Principal), "Visiting Scholar in the School of History, Anthropology, Philosophy and Politics," sponsored by Queen's University Belfast, International, $13000 Funded. (2024 - 2024).
  • Datta, A. (Principal), "President’s Graduate Fellowship Award," sponsored by National University of Singapore, Other, $3100 Funded. (2014 - 2014).
  • Grant - Research

  • Datta, A., "Global Venture Fund," sponsored by UNT, University of North Texas, $3418 Funded. (2024 - 2025).
  • Datta, A., "Royal Historical Society, UK - workshop grant," sponsored by Royal Historical Society, UK, International, $1000 Funded. (2024 - 2025).
  • Datta, A., "UNT CREATE (Creative and Research Enhancement Activity Time for Engagement) Grant," sponsored by UNT, University of North Texas, $4000 Funded. (2024 - 2024).
  • Datta, A. (Principal), "Idaho State University Research and Creative Activity Grant 2023," sponsored by Idaho State University Research and Creative Activity, Other, $5000 Funded. ( - 2023).
  • Datta, A. (Principal), "Idaho State University Course Release Grant for Research," sponsored by Idaho State University, Other, $5000 Funded. (2023 - 2023).
  • Datta, A. (Principal), "Idaho State University Travel Grant 2022-2023," sponsored by Idaho State university, Other, $2000 Funded. ( - 2022).
  • Datta, A. (Principal), "Idaho State University Course Release Grant, 2021," sponsored by Idaho State University, Other, $5000 Funded. (2021 - 2022).
  • Datta, A. (Principal), "Idaho State University Travel Grant, 2021-22," sponsored by Idaho State University, Other, $2000 Funded. (2021 - 2022).
  • Datta, A., "Idaho Humanities Council Grant (sponsored by National Endowment for the Humanities)," sponsored by Idaho Humanities Council Grant (sponsored by National Endowment for the Humanities), Federal, $3500 Funded. (2020 - 2021).
  • Datta, A. (Principal), "Idaho State University Travel Grant, 2019-20," sponsored by Idaho State University, Other, $2000 Funded. (2019 - 2020).
  • Datta, A. (Principal), "Asia Research Fieldwork/Archive Grant, NUS," sponsored by National University of Singapore, National, $5000 Funded. (2017 - 2017).
  • Datta, A. (Principal), "NUS, Academic Event/Conference Grant, July 2016," sponsored by National University of Singapore, National, $25000 Funded. (2016 - 2017).
  • Datta, A. (Principal), "Asia Research Fieldwork/ Archive Grant, NUS," sponsored by National University of Singapore, National, $5000 Funded. (2016 - 2016).
  • Datta, A. (Principal), "Graduate Research Support Scheme Award for research fieldwork," sponsored by National University of Singapore, National, $5000 Funded. ( - 2012).
  • Grant - Service

  • Datta, A. (Other), "Idaho State University Cultural Events Grant," sponsored by Idaho State University, State, $2500 Funded. ( - 2022).
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Overall
Summative Rating
Challenge and
Engagement Index
Response Rate

out of 5

out of 7
%
of
students responded
  • Overall Summative Rating (median):
    This rating represents the combined responses of students to the four global summative items and is presented to provide an overall index of the class’s quality. Overall summative statements include the following (response options include a Likert scale ranging from 5 = Excellent, 3 = Good, and 1= Very poor):
    • The course as a whole was
    • The course content was
    • The instructor’s contribution to the course was
    • The instructor’s effectiveness in teaching the subject matter was
  • Challenge and Engagement Index:
    This rating combines student responses to several SPOT items relating to how academically challenging students found the course to be and how engaged they were. Challenge and Engagement Index items include the following (response options include a Likert scale ranging from 7 = Much higher, 4 = Average, and 1 = Much lower):
    • Do you expect your grade in this course to be
    • The intellectual challenge presented was
    • The amount of effort you put into this course was
    • The amount of effort to succeed in this course was
    • Your involvement in course (doing assignments, attending classes, etc.) was
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