Department of Religion and Culture

Faculty and staff

Suchitra Samanta

Title
Address
Phone
E-mail
Instructor
255 Lane
231-7528

Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology at the University of Virginia, 1990.Samanta

Suchitra Samanta teaches courses across the Women’s Studies, Humanities and Religious Studies programs, including Feminist Theory, Women in South Asia, The Modern World, Asian Americans, and Asian Religions. Her earlier research interests and publications were on the Hindu goddess Kali. More recently, her work and publications have focused on issues of minority status, literacy, and cultural obstacles in poor women’s lives in India. In the anthology ‘Hauntings” (2000) she translated and edited stories from Bengali literature on the supernatural which focus on female protagonists. Dr. Samanta is presently working on a research project on women’s participation in reconstruction efforts in the Southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu after the 2004 tsunami.

Representative publications:

BOOK
2000: “HAUNTINGS.Thirteen Stories from Bangla's Master Storytellers.” New Delhi, India: Katha Vilasam (An anthology from Bengali literature, translated and edited by myself.)


ARTICLES:
2009: "Immobility and 'Unfreedom': Dowry's Violence in the Lives of Poor Indian Women," SOCIOLOGICA INDICA, Vol. 1 (1):1-21.

2005: "Education and Autonomy: Muslim Women as Effective Role Models in a Calcutta Basti" in SOUTHEAST REVIEW of ASIAN STUDIES, Vol. 27:1-16.

2004: "The 'War on Terror,' and Withdrawing American Charity: Some Consequences for Poor Muslim Women in Kolkata, India." In MERIDIANS, Vol. 4 (2):137-167.

1998 The Powers of the Guru: Sakti, “Mind,” and Miracles in Narratives of Bengali Religious Experience” in ANTHROPOLOGY AND HUMANISM, Vol. 23 (1):30-50.

1994 “The ‘Self-Animal’ and Divine Digestion: Goat Sacrifice to the Goddess Kali in Bengali” in the JOURNAL OF ASIAN STUDIES, Vol. 53 (3):779-803.

1992 “Mangalmayima, Sumangali, Mangal: Bengali Perceptions of the Divine Feminine, Motherhood, and ‘Auspiciousness’” in CONTRIBUTIONS TO INDIAN SOCIOLOGY (n.s.), Vol. 26 (1):51-75.