Biography
Advisor: Dr. Judy Tzu-Chun Wu
Degrees:
M.Phil, Jawaharlal Nehru University, India
M.A., Jawaharlal Nehru University, India
B.A., Presidency College, India
First Field: South Asian History
Second Field: Gender and Sexuality
Dissertation Abstract and Bio:
Pratichi Priyambada is a Ph.D Candidate in the Department of History at the University of California, Irvine. She is broadly interested in histories of performance, gender and sexuality and colonial law. Her dissertation titled "Colonial Labels and Dancer's Voices: A Study of Indian Women Performers in Nineteenth-Century Bombay Presidency" centres the daily experiences of Indian dancing women in the unfolding of the socio-cultural history of nineteenth-century western India. Instead of treating colonial legal apparatuses as paramount, her dissertation places the everyday negotiations, complicities and defiance of the dancers at the forefront of discussions on slavery, prostitution and intra-imperial performance networks. She is a recipient of CCWH/Berkshire Graduate Student Fellowship and Selma Jeanne Cohen Award from the Dance Studies Association.