Mou Banerjee

Mou Banerjee serves as Assistant Professor in the Department of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, specializing in colonial South Asian intellectual history with emphasis on religious-political dynamics and identity formation.

Her academic credentials include:

• Ph.D. in History, Harvard University (2018)
• A.M. in History, Harvard University (2013)
• M.A. in English, Jadavpur University (2006)
• B.A. (Hons) in English, Jadavpur University (2004)

Professor Banerjee's research examines religion and politics in India, gender history, hunger/food politics, and border/immigration histories within colonial South Asia. Her work analyzes how evangelical Christianity shaped Indian political consciousness through apologetic debates, while exploring figures like Raja Rammohan Roy through interdisciplinary frameworks combining historical, religious, and postcolonial methodologies.

Her publication trajectory reveals consistent engagement with South Asian intellectual history, spanning Christian conversion narratives, Muslim-Christian apologetics, economic thought dissemination, and religious representation in art. The forthcoming monograph The Disinherited (Harvard University Press, 2025) synthesizes these threads through analysis of colonial India's religious-political landscape.

Her scholarly recognition includes:

• 2013 SSRC-IDRF dissertation research fellowship
• Harold K. Gross award for distinguished dissertation research

Professor Banerjee mentors graduate students including Amrita Chowdhury, Shatrunjay Mall, Sagarika Naik, and Srotaswini Bhowmick. Her research has been supported by the SSRC-IDRF fellowship enabling multi-archival work across UK, India, and Bangladesh. Current projects include a book on Raja Rammohan Roy under contract with Juggernaut Press.