Soumen Mukherjee

Assistant Professor

Dr.phil./ PhD in History of South Asia (Heidelberg University, 2010): Magna cum Laude.

MA in History (University of Calcutta, through Presidency College, 2004): Third in the First Class, in the Order of Merit.

BA with Honours in History (Presidency College, University of Calcutta, 2002): Joint Third in the First Class, in the Order of Merit.

Please see above (under the segments titled 'About' & 'Qualifications') and refer to the CV available on this page.

Research Experience:

Please see above in the sections titled 'About You' and 'Biographical Note', as well as the concise CV. 

Administrative Experience:

Soumen Mukherjee served as Head of the Department of History (HoD) for the period 22 December 2016- 31 March 2019, as well as on a number of committees and sub-committees at the Department of History in particular, and the university in general, in his capacity as HoD. He continues to serve on several committees/ sub-committees that require attending to responsibilities ranging from regular day-to-day adminstrative matters to long-term planning and international collaboration.

He is a member the International Editorial Advisory Board of the peer-reviewed journal South Asian History & Culture (Taylor & Francis) and, as part of service to the field as well as outreach activities, serves as academic reviewer of book proposals, manuscripts, published books etc. for various peer-reviewed journals of global standing, and international publishing houses (e.g. Oxford University Press; Routledge/ Taylor & Francis; Cambridge University Press; Sage), and have been external examiner of M.Phil. dissertation (Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Kolkata; Jadavpur University; University of Calcutta).

Soumen Mukherjee teaches papers on socio-religious and intellectual history of modern South Asia across the whole spectrum of all the three programmes at the department of History, viz. BA; MA; PhD.

These papers include: at the Postgraduate level, Islam in modern South Asia (Postgraduate, year II) and modern Indian intellectual history (Postgraduate, year II), religious and philosophical traditions of early India (Postgraduate year I) and sessional paper on research methods, on reading texts and (until recently) a paper on approaches to the practice of history (Postgraduate, year I, on occasions also in co-teaching arrangement). He also teaches methodology courses for PhD coursework and elective courses for PhD candidates as and when required. His current Undergraduate teaching responsibility includes parts of a shared paper on aspects of early medieval Indian history (BA year II). In the recent past he has, moreover, taught papers such as: early modern South Asian cultures (General Education); Asian interactions between c. 700s and 1500s (UG II); Asian interactions between c. 1500s & 1960s at the Undergraduate level (year III).

Other courses taught in the past include: religious normativities, social reform and social service (Postgraduate, Optional), and modules on intellectual history (Postgraduate, Sessional), & seminal concepts and methods as part of a sessional course on reading texts in history (Postgraduate I). At the Undergraduate level, he has covered courses and/ or modules on the Reformation in Europe and political and social history leading to the First World War and aspects of world politics since 1945, with particular reference to the Islamic Revolution in Iran (UG III), socio-religious reforms in 19th & 20th century South Asia (UG II), aspects of religious and intellectual history in ancient South Asia (UG II & UG I), and early medieval South Asian history (UG I); General Education courses focusing in particular on modules on modern South Asian history, as well as aspects of pan-Islamism and pan-Asianism in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

In his supervisory role he has also been guiding a number of BA, MA and two PhD dissertations over the years.

Soumen Mukherjee's current responsibilities include supervision of MA dissertations on a wide range of topics. He also supervises four PhD candidates, working on the following themes:

- nationalism, the idea of development and the writing of economic history in modern India

- the idea of the divine feminine and religion, politics and culture in modern Bengal

- Bhaktivinode Thakur and Gaudiya Vaishnavism in modern India 

- esotericism in modern India with focus on the life and works of Swami Nigamananda

Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain & Ireland

Kindly refer to the concise CV available on this page. For more information, please see: ORCID: 0009-0001-0859-5235 ; Scopus Author ID: 56316817500 and Vidwan profile.