Dr Manikarnika Dutta
Postgraduate & Early Career Officer
Manikarnika Dutta is the Postgraduate and Early Career officer of the society. She is currently employed as an Assistant Professor in History of Medicine. Her core research and teaching focus on the histories of health, disease, environment and colonialism in South Asia, especially the region’s global and transnational encounters in the 19th- and 20th-century imperial context. Her doctoral and postdoctoral research integrated methodologies from imperial and colonial history, the history of public health and medicine, as well as social history. The culmination of her doctoral research will be her forthcoming monograph titled Health and Welfare of European Seamen in Indian Port Cities, c. 1780-1890. By examining the concurrent developments of tropical and maritime hygiene in the Indian Ocean, it investigates the role of disease research and sanitary reform in shaping the British Empire in the 19th century. Integrating perspectives from imperial history and human geography, it analyses the medical narratives surrounding illness and mortality among European seafarers during their journeys to India and in Indian port cities. This approach charts the medical topography of both the voyage and the destination, addressing a longstanding gap in understanding the interconnected medical history of the European empire and its South Asian colony. Therefore, it facilitates critical reflections on the significance of transregional connections and the intricate interplay of race, geography, and mobility in shaping imperial medical cultures in non-Western settings.
She welcomes enquiries on areas related to history of health and medicine in the context of colonialism and imperialism from c.1800 onwards.