Dr Jayani Bonnerjee
Teaching Assistant
Location: Room 202, Geography Buildingemail: j.bonnerjee@qmul.ac.uk
Phone: 020 7882 2777
Research interests:
Postcolonial urbanism, critical geographies of diaspora, home and identity, South Asia
PhD research:
Neighbourhood, City, Diaspora:
Identity and belonging for Calcutta’s Anglo-Indian and Chinese communities
This thesis is located in the wider debates in postcolonial cultural geography on the city and diaspora. It engages with everyday lived spaces of Calcutta’s Anglo-Indian and Chinese communities through a focus on ideas of home, identity, belonging, cosmopolitanism and nostalgia. Drawing on overlapping narratives of these two communities in the city and in diaspora in London and Toronto, the thesis explores the idea of Calcutta as a ‘diaspora city’ and also the notion of a ‘Calcutta diaspora’. It explores the material and imaginative entanglements of migration and places narratives of identity and belonging for its Anglo-Indian and Chinese communities in the context of the city. Methodologically, the thesis has adopted a multi-sited, qualitative approach to follow the lives of the communities across cities. While a large part of the material has been drawn from in-depth interviews, the thesis also uses material drawn through ethnographic research and participant observation at community events, maps of the neighbourhood and city drawn by interviewees and secondary material such as community publications and websites, films, pamphlets and newspaper reports.
Key words: Anglo-Indian, Chinese, Calcutta, diaspora, city
Supervisors: Prof. Alison Blunt and Dr. Shompa Lahiri
Funding:
The Leverhulme Trust (as part of the Diaspora Cities research project- http://www.geog.qmul.ac.uk/diasporacities/)
Queen Mary, University of London, Department of Geography studentship
Central Research Fund, University of London
Publications:
Blunt, A., J. Bonnerjee, C. Lipman, J. Long and F. Paynter 2007 ‘My Home: text, space and performance’ Cultural Geographies 14:1-10
Book review of Chinois a Calcutta: les tigres du Bengale (Berjeaut) and Blood, sweat and mahjong: family and enterprise in an overseas Chinese community (Oxfeld). China Report, Vol 43: 4, 2007
Book review (forthcoming) The meaning of the local: politics of place in urban India. By Geert de Neve and Henrike Donner.
Selected presentations:
2007
‘Cosmopolitan Calcutta and its Anglo-Indian and Chinese neighbourhoods: a glimpse through the politics of Bow Barracks and Tangra.’ Cultural Studies Workshop, organised by SEPHIS and CSSSC; Hyderabad, India.
‘“It’s time to come back home”: Christmas and Chinese New Year celebrations in Calcutta.’ Journeys of Expression VI Conference: Diaspora Community Festivals and Tourism, University of York.
‘Placing neighbourhood and city in diaspora space.’ International Conference on Globalising Urban Histories, University of Cambridge.
‘“Good Old Cal”: Anglo-Indian memories of Calcutta.’ International Conference on Researching Anglo-India: Indian and diasporic contexts. Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta.
2008
‘Attachment and city space: Anglo-Indian and Chinese memories of Calcutta.’ Association of American Geographers Annual Conference, Boston.
‘At home in the city: spaces of belonging in Kolkata’s Chinatowns.’ International symposium on ‘Urban experiences: India, China and Chinese Indians,’ Calcutta University, convened by Confederation of Indian Industries and supported by Kolkata Municipal Corporation, University of Calcutta, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies, and the ORF- India China Centre, Kolkata.
‘Home, identity and the city: narratives of belonging for the Calcutta Chinese.’ Fourth Biennial International Conference of Indian Association for Asian and Pacific Studies, Viswabharati University, Santiniketan.
‘Dias-para: exploring everyday landscapes of the neighbourhood in Calcutta’s Anglo-Indian and Chinese diaspora.’ Institute of British Geographers Annual conference, London.
‘Calcutta as desh: narratives of belonging for Anglo-Indian and Chinese Calcuttans.’ International conference on Migration, Diaspora and City at CSSSC, Calcutta.