Oyndrila Sarkar holds undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in History (Honours, BA 2007, Presidency College, University of Calcutta; MA 2009, through Presidency College, University of Calcutta) and an M.Phil degree in History (Centre for Historical Studies, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, 2012), and a doctoral degree (D.Phil, 2019), University of Heidelberg). She has taught as a Lecturer at the Shaheed Bhagat Singh College, University of Delhi, before joining Presidency University as Assistant Professor of History, in July 2012. Her key interests are in the histories of the map, and map production.
BA Honours, History (Presidency College, University of Calcutta, 2007): Ranked First Class First.
MA, History (University of Calcutta, through Presidency College, 2009): Ranked First Class.
M. Phil, History (Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, 2012): Ranked First Class.
Dr. Phil in Transcultural Studies (University of Heidelberg, 2019): Graded Magna cum Laude
Oyndrila Sarkar graduated from Presidency College, Calcutta, with a BA in History, ranking First class First (2007), and was awarded an MA in History, with a special focus on Social History of Modern India, ranking First class Second, from the University of Calcutta (2009). She has an MPhil from the Centre for Historical Studies, at the School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, titled, "Cartographic Conquests: Men, Machines, Methods 1830-1870". Other than qualifying in the National Eligibility Test (Lecturership: 2009, and JRF/Junior Research Fellowship: 2010), she was awarded the prestigeous University Grants Commission Award for the The Post-Graduate Merit Scholarship for University Rank Holder, 2007-2008. She was recepient of the DFG Fellowship (Deutsche Forschungs Gemeinschaft/German Research Foundation) in 2013-2016 to pursue a Doctoral degree (Graduate Programme for Transcultural Studies), at the Cluster of Excellence-Asia & Europe in a Global Context, at the University of Heidelberg. Her doctoral thesis examined the antecedents of the construction of the Indian state through a study of the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India (GTSI) and its survey operations. She was awarded a Dr.Phil with Magna-cum Laude. During her postgraduate years at JNU, she has taught as a Lecturer at Department of History, Shaheed Bhagat Singh College, University of Delhi (w.e.f 19th September 2011 – 5th May 2012). Thereafter she joined the Department of History, Presidency University as an Assistant Professor (July 2012).
She was recipient of the following prizes and grants:
- Kalyan Kumar Dasgupta Memorial Award, University of Calcutta, 2008-2009.
- Kuruville Zachariah Memorial Prize, Presidency College, Calcutta, 2008.
- Himani Devi Memorial Prize, Presidency College, Calcutta, 2008.
- Ajoy Banerjee Memorial Prize, Presidency College, Calcutta, 2008.
- Punyalekha Banerjee Memorial Prize, Presidency College, Calcutta, 2007.
- Ashin Dasgupta Memorial Prize, Presidency College, Calcutta, 2006.
- Presidency College Alumni Association Scholarship, Calcutta, 2006.
- Ila Mukhopadhyay Memorial Medal, Presidency College, Calcutta, 2006.
Oyndrila Sarkar was a recipient of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) fellowship for her PhD at the University of Heidelberg, Germany and is Assistant Professor of History at Presidency University, Kolkata. She has been trained as a historian and her work moves through spaces in India and South Asia through map histories. Her research interests are in the histories of cartography, mapmaking technologies, material practices, and their intersections with science. Her publications include essays on the Survey of India’s mapmaking efforts during the interwar era, border surveys mechanisms between British India and China, cartographic traditions of the Bengal delta, the Schlagintweit Mission in India, and spatial histories of trans-Himalayan cartographic networks. She is currently working on early lithographic practices in atlases, cheap-printed maps of sacred spaces, and riverine and landscape intersections in maps and atlases. Oyndrila Sarkar is also National Representative for the Imago Mundi, and is a trustee for the ISHMap International Society for the History of the Map.
Courses Taught/Teaching: 2012-2026
Undergraduate Courses: 2012-2013: Old Syllabus
- Aspects of Antiquity: A History of Greece, Rome & China: Politics & Society
- Aspects of Antiquity: A History of Greece, Rome & China: Religion & Culture
- Early Medieval India c.1200-1500
2016-2024: New Syllabus and CBCS
- Early Modern Europe
- History of Modern India 1757-1947
- History of Science, Technology & Medicine: 19th-20th Centuries
- HIST-131: Understanding South Asian Cultures
- HIST C6: Rise of the Modern West – I
- HIST C8: Rise of the Modern West – II
- HIST DSE-3C: History of Science, Technology & Medicine in 19-20th century
- HIST156MDC03: Women in Indian Society
Postgraduate Courses:
2012-2013: Old Syllabus
- Establishment & Consolidation of Colonial Rule in India 1757-1857
- Early Colonial Rule in India: Issues & Responses 1757-1857
- Industrial Transformations in the Modern World
- Social History of Modern India
2016-2026: New Syllabus
- HIST 0703B: Religious and Cultural Nationalisms
- HIST 0791: Research Methodology: Approaches to the Study of History
- HIST 0891: Research Methodology: Reading Texts in History
- HIST 0902B: History and Philosophy of Science
- HIST 0904B: Aspects of Literature & Literary History in Modern South Asia
- HIST 1004B: An Environmental History of India
NEP Syllabus: 2026 onwards
Undergraduate Courses:
- HIST 203SEC01A: Understanding Heritage (Co-Taught)
- HIST 405MC05: Research Methodology: Reading Texts in History
PhD Coursework:
- HIST-C2: Research and Publication Ethics
Current PhD supervision: two doctoral candidates (registered), two doctoral candidates (enrolled).
Past BA/MA supervision: Undergraduate & Postgradute dissertations at the Department of History, Presidency University (2016-2026).
Trustree, The International Society for the History of the Map (ISHMap).
Board Member, National Representative, Imago Mundi: The International Journal for the History of Cartography.
Life member, Indian Journal of Spatial Sciences.
Member, International Society for the History of the Map (ISH Map).
Member, The International Cartographic Association (ICA).
Member, Paschimbanga Itihash Sansad, Kolkata.
Journal Article:
(2025) “Mapping Britain’s China Border: 1861-1905,” Calcutta Historical Journal, January-June Issue 33(1): 105-132. ISSN: 0254-9794.
(2025) “Revisiting the history of the Bengal Delta in Maps and Atlases,” Indian Journal of Spatial Science IJSS, Spring Issue. 16(1): 1-13. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15105264. ISSN: 2249-3921, EISSN: 2249-4316.
(2023) “A Weather in the Empire’s Cap: Henry Francis Blanford & the Indian Meteorological Observatories 1875-1890”, Journal of Research in Humanities and Social Sciences. (Quest Journals, 11(12), 186-192, ISSN: 2321-9467).
(2019) “Mapping the Brahmaputra Narratives 1820-1890” in ‘Language, Literature and Sacred Texts’, 8th South and Southeast Asian Association for the Study of Culture and Religion (SSEASR) Conference Abstract Volume, Rivers and Religion-Connecting Cultures of South and Southeast Asia, p. 150. (Centre for Archaeological Studies, University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh, Nymphea Publication, Dhaka, ISBN: 974-984-93853-0-1).
(2017) “Science, Surveying and Scientific Authority: The Brothers Schlagintweit in ‘India and High Asia’, 1854-1857”, South Asia Journal of South Asian Studies. (Vol. 40, Issue iii, 544-565, ISSN: 0085-6401, DOI: 10.1080/00856401.2017.1340110).
(2014) “Geopolitics and the GTSI: The Schlagintweit Brothers in India 1854-1857”, Indian Journal of Spatial Science, (Vol. V, No. 1, ISSN: 2249-4316).
(2012) “The Great Trigonometrical Survey - Histories of Mapping 1790-1850”, eTraverse: The Online Indian Journal Of Spatial Science, The Geographical Institute, (Vol. III, No. 1, Article 4, ISSN: 2249-4316)
(2011) Book Reviews “The Archaic and the Exotic: Studies in the History of Indian Astronomical Instruments”, Contemporary South Asia, (Vol. 19, No. 4, 471-479. ISSN: 0958-4935, DOI: 10.1080/09584935.2011.622105)
Article in Edited Volumes:
(2024) “Visualizing Spaces of Knowledge in the Himalayas, 1830-1917”, in Soumen Mukherjee (ed.) Empire, Religion and Identity: Modern South Asia and the Global Circulation of Ideas. (Brill Indological Library, Vol. 59, Brill Publications, ISBN: 978-90-04-68515-4, DOI: 10.1163/9789004694330_008)
(2020) “War Cartography in the Survey of India, 1920–1946”, in Alexander Kent, Soetkin Vervust, Imre Demhardt, Nick Millea (eds.) Mapping Empires: Colonial Cartographies of Land and Sea. Lecture Notes in Geoinformation and Cartography. (Springer International Publishing, ISBN: 978-3-030-23447-8, Series ISSN: 2195-1705, DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-23447-8)
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