Time: March 5, 2026, 10:30-12:00

Venue: Room 233, Department of History

Lecturer: Titas Chakraborty

Abstract: This lecture is focused on the experience of hired laborers in South Asia during the rise of the East India Company. By perusing Bangladeshi literature as well as Dutch and British historical documents, the lecturer has shone a new light on the rise of corporate state, recasting it as a violent process that dismantled the local labor culture by eliminating competition and oppressing the workers through the use of police and military. More importantly, the lecturer tries to rebuild the world of these "obstinate" laborers, revealing how their protests were rooted in their everyday lives.

Lecturer's profile: Titas Chakraborty is an assistant professor of History at Duke Kunshan University. She is a historian of labor, gender and migration specifically studying eighteenth century South Asia. Her major fields of training are South Asian history, Labor History and World History.