Lakshmi Subramanian

Lakshmi Subramanian, currently Visiting Professor, Humanities and Social Sciences, BITS, Pilani-Goa. She has had a long and distinguished career during which she has taught at Visva Bharati, University of Calcutta, Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta, and Jamia Millia Islamia. She has been a visiting professor at the Institute of Advanced Studies Nantes, University of Göttingen, University of Glasgow, University of Warsaw, and the Indian Institute of Science. Her research expertise includes maritime history, social and economic history of modern India, and a social history of music in twentieth century India. Her publications include The Sovereign and the Pirate: Ordering Maritime Subjects in India’s Western Littoral (Oxford University Press, 2017) and From the Tanjore Court to the Madras Music Academy. A social history of music in South India (Oxford University Press, 2006). Her most recent publication is on Gandhi and the idea of Sonic nationalism. She has also curated an exhibition titled The Scholar-Musician and the Seni ustads based on a collection of private papers acquired by the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta. The exhibition showcased among other things the potential that small private collections have in developing the emergent field of Public Humanities in India.