Projit Mukharji

Projit Bihari Mukharji is an Associate Professor of History and Sociology of Science at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Arts & Sciences. His research focuses on postcolonial technoscience, colonial medicine, and the intersections of race, genetics, and indigenous medical traditions. He holds a PhD from the School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS), University of London, and advanced degrees from Jawaharlal Nehru University and Presidency College, Calcutta.

Dr. Mukharji's work bridges the histories of science, medicine, and colonialism, with a particular emphasis on South Asia. His books include Doctoring Traditions: Ayurveda, Small Technologies, and Braided Sciences (2016) and Brown Skins, White Coats: Race Science in India, 1920-66 (2022). His research explores topics like the modernization of Ayurveda, race science in colonial contexts, and the entanglements of science with marginalized knowledges.

He teaches courses on comparative medicine, forensic science, and the history of chemistry in colonial Bengal. His recent projects investigate the history of race science in 20th-century India and the interplay between science and the supernatural. He is affiliated with the Departments of Religious Studies and South Asian Studies at UPenn.