Dr. Anisha Datta

B.A. (Hons) (University of Calcutta), M.A. (University of Calcutta), Ph.D. (University of British Columbia)

Assistant Professor

Teaching Areas: Social and Cultural Theories, Social Inequalities, Consumer Culture, Globalization and Development.

Research Areas: Biopower, Marx and Foucault, Postcolonial Readings of Sociological Canons, Consumer Culture, Class, Caste, and Gender in South Asia, Nationalism and Socialism in Postcolonial Settings

Dr. Datta came to Brandon University from the University of British Columbia where she taught in the interdisciplinary Arts One Program. She was born and raised in India. Before coming to Canada to pursue her doctoral studies in Sociology, Anisha worked for six years as a social policy and development researcher in India and Bangladesh. She approaches the study of society with an interdisciplinary perspective. In her research, she makes extensive use of interpretative methods, history and literature. The genre of critical sociology inspires her scholarly works.

Anisha’s recent research analyzed critically the textually mediated discourse of a socialist women’s organization in India to show how the agenda of building a sustha [normal and healthy] socialist nation-state attempts to discipline the political constituency of women. She has published essays on the topics of the consumption of bleaching face creams in India, and the articulation of non-western modernity in South Asian literature. Anisha’s current research project examines the relationship between a dalit caste community and the postcolonial Indian state. The broad sociological theme that integrates her teaching and research interests is the interaction among the nation-state, civil society organizations, and marginalized groups in a globalized socio-economic and cultural environment.