Arunima Datta

Professor Datta is a  historian of British Empire and Asian (South and Southeast Asian) history. In her research and teaching she is constantly exploring the everyday experiences of labor migrants within the context of the British Empire. Her research themes of focus are: labor, women's history, food and emotions.

Her first book, Fleeting Agencies: A Social History of Indian Coolie Women in British Malaya, published by Cambridge University Press 2021 (which has won multiple awards: the NWSA Whaley Book Award; the WAWH Chaudhuri Prize; and the NACBS Stansky Award) disrupts the male- dominated narratives by focusing on gendered patterns of migration and showing how South Asian women labor migrants engaged with the process of migration, interacted with other migrants, with colonial laws and negotiated world wars. The book also introduces the concept of situational or fleeting agency, which contributes to further a nuanced understanding of agency in the lives of Indian coolie women. Her second book, Waiting on Empire: A History of Indian Travelling Ayahs in Britain, published by Oxford University Press 2023 focuses on a largely forgotten group of South Asian traveling ayahs (servants and nannies), who traveled between India and Britain and often found themselves destitute in Britain as they struggled to find their way home to South Asia. While delving into the stories of individual ayahs the book also re-imagines the experience of waiting within the context of transnational migrations. She has published several articles and chapters, concerning South and Southeast Asian histories, labor migration and women's histories.

Dr. Datta serves as an Associate Editor for the journals Gender & History and Britain and the World, and as an Associate Review Editor for the American Historical Review.

Professor Datta recently collaborated with the Museum of the Home (London), a period room exhibition based on her book Waiting on Empire. The exhibition opened to the public in July 2024 and included a curatorial workshop titled Taste the Past .  This unique program allowed visitors to experience history through food by tasting archival recipes gathered from the past and preparing them with museum staff for the audiences. The event was a tremendous success, fostering a deeper connection between our audience and historical culinary traditions and will be offered at the museum again in the near future.