People

President

Lipi Ghosh is a M.A. and Ph. D in History was the former Centenary Professor of International Relations, University of Calcutta along with her position as Director of the Centre for South & South East Asian Studies and Director, Women’s Study Research Centre, University of Calcutta. Her major areas of research interest are ethnicity, minority & cultural studies in context of South & Southeast Asia. Her special interest is India-South East Asian relations and connectivities. She has 18 books at her credit from international and national publishers.
Professor Ghosh was Visiting Professor to the IIAS, Shimla, MSH, Paris, SOAS, London, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, SEAP. Cornell University, University of British Columbia University and ISEAS, Singapore. She was the First ICCR Chair Professor in Lund University, Sweden. She was also a Nehru Fulbright Professional and Academic Excellence Fellow to CSUS, USA. She knows English, French, Elementary German and Thai languages.

Vice-President

Suchandra Ghosh is Professor, Department of History, University of Hyderabad. Her area of research is Politico-Cultural History of North-West India, Early India’s linkages with Early Southeast Asia, Indian Ocean Trade Network. She received several international fellowships like the Director d’Etudes Associe (Paris) and was the sectional President of Indian History Congress. She authored From the Oxus to the Indus: A Political and Cultural Study and Cross Cultural Networking in the Eastern Indian Ocean Realm, C.100-1800 CE and Exploring South Asian Urbanity are her recent co-edited works. She is the Area Editor of The Encyclopedia of Ancient History: Asia and Africa, Wiley Blackwell.

Jt Vice President

Sarvani Gooptu is Professor of Asian Literary and Cultural Studies in Netaji Institute for Asian Studies, Kolkata. Her main areas of research are Nationalism and Culture in the colonial period. Among her publications are three monographs-The Actress in the Public Theatres of Calcutta ( 2015), The Music of Nationhood: Dwijendralal Roy of Bengal ( 2018),Knowing Asia: being Asian: Cosmopolitanism and Nationalism in Bengali periodicals 1870-1940 ( 2021). She has co-edited books on history and culture and International Relations and two more are forthcoming on culture and travel. She has presented papers in national and international conferences as well as contributed papers in edited volumes and journals of repute. Sarvani Gooptu is actively engaged with the Netaji Research Bureau as its Council Member and just served as Secretary of the Indian Association for Asian and Pacific Studies. She is the incoming secretary at the Rotary Club of Calcutta.

Secretary

Anasua Basu Ray Chaudhury, Ph.D in International Relations, is a Senior Fellow with the Neighbourhood Initiatives, Observer Research Foundation, Kolkata chapter. She is the Editor, ORF Bangla. She specialises in regional and sub-regional cooperation in South Asia, the Bay of Bengal region and the Indo-Pacific, energy politics, forced migration and women in conflict zones. She is also the recipient of the Public Service Broadcasting Trust Senior Media Fellowship (Prasar Bharati,2007) and the Kodikara Award (Regional Centre for Strategic Studies, Colombo, 1998–99). She is a member of the Editorial Board of international peer reviewed journals namely Borders in Globalisation Review (Centre for Global Studies, Canada) and Journal for Indian Ocean Research (Routledge, New Delhi). Her recent publications include Caste and Partition in Bengal: The story of Dalit refugees,1946-61 (OUP, UK, 2022); BIMSTEC: Mapping Sub-regionalism in Asia (Co-edited Routledge: UK, 2022); New futures of BIMSTEC: connectivity, commerce and security (co-edited Routledge: UK, 2021), Reimagining BIMSTEC: Strengthening regional solidarity across the Bay of Bengal region (Co-edited/ ORF, New Delhi, 2021); India– Myanmar Borderlands: Ethnicity, Security and Connectivity (co-edited/ Routledge, UK, 2020); Connecting Nations: India and Southeast Asia (coedited/ Primus, New Delhi, 2019).

Treasurer

Susmita Mukherjee, Ph.D in History is currently working at Syamaprasad College as Associate Professor in the Department of History since 1996. Her area of research is gender and medicine with special emphasis on indigenous women medical practitioners of colonial Bengal. As a recipient of Minor Research Fellowship from University Grants Commission she worked on the growth and institutionalization of medical education in Bengal and explored in-depth the impediments and success of the Bengali women doctors of colonial period. Dr. Mukherjee also specializes in the history of Burma in the colonial period. She has many published articles and has contributed chapters in books. She is currently working on a project granted by Dr. Ram Dayal Munda Tribal Research Institute, Moradabad Ranchi titled “Tamar Revolt from year 1767 to Sardari Movement: Archival, Non-Archival and Oral Sources Based Compilation and Analysis.” Her book Women and Medical Profession in Colonial Bengal, 1883-1947 has recently been published from Primus Books, Delhi.