Amelia Bonea delivered a lecture on ‘Footnotes of History: Fossils, Gender and Palaeosciences in 20th-Century India’. It was chaired by Prabhat Kumar.
Natural history specimens like fossilized plants and animals have locally and globally relevant stories to tell. While North America has an established reputation as a fossil hotspot, fossil localities in other parts of the world like India do not enjoy the same visibility, notwithstanding their scientific significance. Focusing on the example of the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences and the Geological Studies Unit at the Indian Statistical Institute, the paper traces the institutionalization of palaebotany and palaeontology in twentieth-century India. It ponders their global entanglements and the role of women therein, as institution builders, professional scientists and fieldwork companions.
Amelia Bonea is a historian of modern and contemporary South Asia, with an interest in media, science, technology and medicine. Her monograph The News of Empire: Telegraphy, Journalism, and the Politics of Reporting in Colonial India, c. 1830-1900 (OUP, 2016) was awarded the 2017 AHA Eugenia M. Palmegiano Prize.
Prabhat Kumar is Assistant Professor at Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi.
Tuesday, 22 February 2022, 5 pm, Zoom https://bit.ly/3B7NBkC
