Kabita Chakraborty
Associate Professor
Office: Children, Childhood and Youth Program
Phone: (416)736-2100 Ext: 66915
Email: kabitac@yorku.ca
I am a post-colonial scholar of critical children and youth studies. I work across South and Southeast Asia.
Degrees
PhD, University of QueenslandM.A, University of Toronto
Research Interests
- President's University-Wide Teaching Award - 2016
- Department of Humanities Teaching Excellence Award - 2015
Current Research Projects
-
Summary:
The project “Extreme Love: Young People’s Experiences at the Intersection of Intimacy and Violence in Urban India” explores young people’s experiences of violence in premarital dating/courtship processes in India. The context of the project is a globalizing and rapidly modernizing India where intimate culture is changing for young people. For modern youth in urban spaces, the importance of obtaining premarital relationship experience sits in contrast with continued social stigma around mixed-sex dating. As a result, young people participate in the world of youth romance in secret. Secret relationships, however, are complicated by particular types of violence endemic to the relationship process. While research on married couple’s experiences of violence in relationships is rich, little is known about young people’s experiences. Thus, the key issues to be addressed in the research are: mapping the various types of violence endemic in youth premarital relationships and documenting young people’s lived experiences of violence within the context of premarital relationships.Knowledge about how young people experience violence, how they manage violence in the context of secret relationships, and their understanding of gaps in support, create new knowledge about youth culture in India. The research, then, speaks to the recent “youth turn” within the field of Children’s Studies, and specifically addresses the call within the field for more diverse understandings of childhood and youth from the Global South.
Funders:
SSHRC Insight
Chakraborty, Kabita. (2016) . Young Muslim Women in India: Bollywood, Identity and Changing Youth Culture Routledge: London
Chakraborty, K (2025)." Children’s Rights, Bollywood Dance and the NGOisation of Poor Communities in India" in Oxford Handbook on Indian Dance edited by A. Banerji and P. Purkayastha. Oxford: Oxford University Press
Chakraborty, K (2023). “Nobody wants to be the behenji-type”: Youth, Work, and Premarital relationships in the urban slums of Kolkata in Child, Youth and Modernity in India edited by A. Dar and D. Kannan. London: Palgrave MacMillan
Chakraborty K. (2016) Eve-Teasing and Education Mobility: Young Women’s Experiences in the Urban Slums of India. In: Worth N., Dwyer C., Skelton T. (eds) Identities and Subjectivities. Geographies of Children and Young People, vol 4. Springer, Singapore
Chakraborty, Kabita. (2015) . Bollywood as a Role Model: Boyfriends, Dating and Negotiating Romance. In C. Bradford and M. Reimer (eds.) Girls, Texts, Cultures (pp. 238-263) Wilfred Laurier University Press.
Chakraborty, Kabita. (2015) . Young People’s Mobile Phone Cultures in the Urban Slums of Kolkata. In N. Schinder and F. Titzmann (eds.) Youth, Media, and Gender in Post-Liberalization India. (pp. 191-214) Berlin: Frank & Timme.
Chakraborty, Kabita. (2010) . Unmarried Muslim Youth and Sex Education in the bustees of Kolkata. In A. Doron and A. Broom (Ed.), Health Culture and Religion in South Asia (pp. 114-134). London: Routledge
Beazley, H. and K. Chakraborty (2008). Cool Consumption: Rasta, Punk and Bollywood on the Streets of Yogyakarta, Indonesia and Kolkata, India. In U. M. Rodrigues and B. Smaill (Ed.), Youth, Media and Culture in the Asia Pacific Region (pp. 195-214). Newcastle UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Chakraborty, K (2024) A digital archive of relationship desires: Exploring gender, violence and romance in a modernizing India through unsolicited text messages. Sage Research Methods Cases: Diversifying and Decolonizing Research
Chakraborty, K. and D. Sen (2020). Shymoli and the Unknown male: the city’s violent margins. Special Issue on Kolkata. Contemporary South Asia 28(4): 472-484 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09584935.2020.1842862
Agha, S., Thambiah, S. and K. Chakraborty (2019). Children’s Agency in Accessing for Spaces of Play in an Urban High-Rise Community in Malaysia. Children's Geographies 17(6): 691-704. DOI: https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/DE6CNSRCT897VV6UUPGB/full?target=10.1080/14733285.2019.1574335
Chakraborty, K., S. Thambiah and J. Arumugam. (2018). Estate youth and complicated migration in Malaysia’s oil palm plantations: The emotions of leaving and coming back home. Children’s Geographies . 16(6) 642-653. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14733285.2018.1479514
Chakraborty, K and S. Thambiah (2018). Editorial Introduction: Children and Young People’s Emotions of Migration Across Asia. Children’s Geographies . 16(6): 583-590. DOI: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14733285.2018.1503231
Thambiah, S, Chakraborty, K., Sarkar R. (2016) . Violence and Migration in a Team Research setting: Working with Bangladeshi Migrant Women in Malaysia. Gender, Place and Culture . DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0966369X.2015.1136814
Chakraborty, K. (2016). “Eve-teasing” and Education Mobility: Young Women’s Experiences in the Urban Slums of India. In T. Skelton, C. Dwyer and N. Worth (eds.) Geographies of Children and Young People . Volume “Inclusion and Exclusion”. 269-292. New York: Springer.
Coren E, Hossain R, Pardo Pardo J, Veras MMS, Chakraborty K, Harris H, Martin AJ (2013). Interventions for Promoting Reintegration and Reducing Harmful Behaviour and Lifestyles in Street-connected Children and Young People. Evidence Based Child Health 8(4):1140-272.
Nansen B, Chakraborty K, Gibbs L, Vetere F, MacDougall C. (2013) . “MyBus”: Children’s Mobile Health, Wellbeing and Digital Inclusion. Journal of Community Informatics.9(2):online
Chakraborty, Kabita. (2012) Representations: Visual Arts: Television: India [entry on Young Muslim Women and Bollywood Popular Culture]. Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures (online edition) Netherlands: Brill.
Nansen B, Chakraborty K, Gibbs L, Vetere F, and MacDougall C. (2012) . Children and Digital Wellbeing in Australia: Online Mediation, Conduct and Competence. Journal of Children and Media 6(2): 237-254.
Chakraborty K, Nansen B, Gibbs L and MacDougall C. (2012) . Ethical Negotiations: Committees, Methods and Research with Children. International Journal of Children’s Rights. 20(2): 541-533.
Coren E, Hossain R, Pardo Pardo J, Thomae M, Veras MMS, Chakraborty K. (2012) . Interventions for Promoting Reintegration and Reducing Harmful Behaviour and Lifestyles in Street-Connected Children and Young People (Protocol). Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Issue 4 2012.
Chakraborty, K. (2012) . Virtual Mate-Seeking in the Urban Slums of Kolkata, India. South Asian Popular Culture 10(2): 197-216.
Chakraborty, Kabita. (2012) . Young Married Muslim Couples Negotiating their Sexual Lives in the Urban Slums of Kolkata. Intersections: Gender and Sexuality in Asia and the Pacific Issue 28 [online March 2012].
Nansen B, Chakraborty K, Gibbs L, Vetere F, and MacDougall C. (2012) . “You Do the Math”: Mathletics and the Play of Online Learning. New Media & Society 14(1): 2016-2035.
Chakraborty, Kabita. (2010) . The Sexual Lives of Muslim Girls in the bustees of Kolkata, India. Sex Education 10(1): 1-21.
Chakraborty, Kabita. (2010) . Unmarried Muslim Youth and Sex Education in the bustees of Kolkata. South Asian History and Culture 1(2): 268–281 special issue ‘Health, Culture and Religion: Critical Perspectives’.
Chakraborty, Kabita. (2009) . “The Good Muslim Girl”: Conducting Qualitative Participatory Research to Understand the Lives of Young Muslim Women in the bustees of Kolkata. Children’s Geographies 7(4): 421-434 special issue ‘20 years since the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child’.
Current Courses
| Term | Course Number | Section | Title | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fall 2024 | AP/CCY3999 6.0 | B | Research Methods with Children | BLEN |
Upcoming Courses
| Term | Course Number | Section | Title | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winter 2025 | AP/CCY4999 6.0 | M | CCY Honours Research Project | ONLN |
I am a post-colonial scholar of critical children and youth studies. I work across South and Southeast Asia.
Degrees
PhD, University of QueenslandM.A, University of Toronto
Research Interests
Awards
- President's University-Wide Teaching Award - 2016
- Department of Humanities Teaching Excellence Award - 2015
Current Research Projects
-
Summary:
The project “Extreme Love: Young People’s Experiences at the Intersection of Intimacy and Violence in Urban India” explores young people’s experiences of violence in premarital dating/courtship processes in India. The context of the project is a globalizing and rapidly modernizing India where intimate culture is changing for young people. For modern youth in urban spaces, the importance of obtaining premarital relationship experience sits in contrast with continued social stigma around mixed-sex dating. As a result, young people participate in the world of youth romance in secret. Secret relationships, however, are complicated by particular types of violence endemic to the relationship process. While research on married couple’s experiences of violence in relationships is rich, little is known about young people’s experiences. Thus, the key issues to be addressed in the research are: mapping the various types of violence endemic in youth premarital relationships and documenting young people’s lived experiences of violence within the context of premarital relationships.Knowledge about how young people experience violence, how they manage violence in the context of secret relationships, and their understanding of gaps in support, create new knowledge about youth culture in India. The research, then, speaks to the recent “youth turn” within the field of Children’s Studies, and specifically addresses the call within the field for more diverse understandings of childhood and youth from the Global South.
Project Type: FundedRole: PI
Funders:
SSHRC Insight
All Publications
Chakraborty, K (2025)." Children’s Rights, Bollywood Dance and the NGOisation of Poor Communities in India" in Oxford Handbook on Indian Dance edited by A. Banerji and P. Purkayastha. Oxford: Oxford University Press
Chakraborty, K (2023). “Nobody wants to be the behenji-type”: Youth, Work, and Premarital relationships in the urban slums of Kolkata in Child, Youth and Modernity in India edited by A. Dar and D. Kannan. London: Palgrave MacMillan
Chakraborty K. (2016) Eve-Teasing and Education Mobility: Young Women’s Experiences in the Urban Slums of India. In: Worth N., Dwyer C., Skelton T. (eds) Identities and Subjectivities. Geographies of Children and Young People, vol 4. Springer, Singapore
Chakraborty, Kabita. (2015) . Bollywood as a Role Model: Boyfriends, Dating and Negotiating Romance. In C. Bradford and M. Reimer (eds.) Girls, Texts, Cultures (pp. 238-263) Wilfred Laurier University Press.
Chakraborty, Kabita. (2015) . Young People’s Mobile Phone Cultures in the Urban Slums of Kolkata. In N. Schinder and F. Titzmann (eds.) Youth, Media, and Gender in Post-Liberalization India. (pp. 191-214) Berlin: Frank & Timme.
Chakraborty, Kabita. (2010) . Unmarried Muslim Youth and Sex Education in the bustees of Kolkata. In A. Doron and A. Broom (Ed.), Health Culture and Religion in South Asia (pp. 114-134). London: Routledge
Beazley, H. and K. Chakraborty (2008). Cool Consumption: Rasta, Punk and Bollywood on the Streets of Yogyakarta, Indonesia and Kolkata, India. In U. M. Rodrigues and B. Smaill (Ed.), Youth, Media and Culture in the Asia Pacific Region (pp. 195-214). Newcastle UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Chakraborty, Kabita. (2016) . Young Muslim Women in India: Bollywood, Identity and Changing Youth Culture Routledge: London
Chakraborty, K (2024) A digital archive of relationship desires: Exploring gender, violence and romance in a modernizing India through unsolicited text messages. Sage Research Methods Cases: Diversifying and Decolonizing Research
Chakraborty, K. and D. Sen (2020). Shymoli and the Unknown male: the city’s violent margins. Special Issue on Kolkata. Contemporary South Asia 28(4): 472-484 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09584935.2020.1842862
Agha, S., Thambiah, S. and K. Chakraborty (2019). Children’s Agency in Accessing for Spaces of Play in an Urban High-Rise Community in Malaysia. Children's Geographies 17(6): 691-704. DOI: https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/DE6CNSRCT897VV6UUPGB/full?target=10.1080/14733285.2019.1574335
Chakraborty, K., S. Thambiah and J. Arumugam. (2018). Estate youth and complicated migration in Malaysia’s oil palm plantations: The emotions of leaving and coming back home. Children’s Geographies . 16(6) 642-653. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14733285.2018.1479514
Chakraborty, K and S. Thambiah (2018). Editorial Introduction: Children and Young People’s Emotions of Migration Across Asia. Children’s Geographies . 16(6): 583-590. DOI: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14733285.2018.1503231
Thambiah, S, Chakraborty, K., Sarkar R. (2016) . Violence and Migration in a Team Research setting: Working with Bangladeshi Migrant Women in Malaysia. Gender, Place and Culture . DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0966369X.2015.1136814
Chakraborty, K. (2016). “Eve-teasing” and Education Mobility: Young Women’s Experiences in the Urban Slums of India. In T. Skelton, C. Dwyer and N. Worth (eds.) Geographies of Children and Young People . Volume “Inclusion and Exclusion”. 269-292. New York: Springer.
Coren E, Hossain R, Pardo Pardo J, Veras MMS, Chakraborty K, Harris H, Martin AJ (2013). Interventions for Promoting Reintegration and Reducing Harmful Behaviour and Lifestyles in Street-connected Children and Young People. Evidence Based Child Health 8(4):1140-272.
Nansen B, Chakraborty K, Gibbs L, Vetere F, MacDougall C. (2013) . “MyBus”: Children’s Mobile Health, Wellbeing and Digital Inclusion. Journal of Community Informatics.9(2):online
Chakraborty, Kabita. (2012) Representations: Visual Arts: Television: India [entry on Young Muslim Women and Bollywood Popular Culture]. Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures (online edition) Netherlands: Brill.
Nansen B, Chakraborty K, Gibbs L, Vetere F, and MacDougall C. (2012) . Children and Digital Wellbeing in Australia: Online Mediation, Conduct and Competence. Journal of Children and Media 6(2): 237-254.
Chakraborty K, Nansen B, Gibbs L and MacDougall C. (2012) . Ethical Negotiations: Committees, Methods and Research with Children. International Journal of Children’s Rights. 20(2): 541-533.
Coren E, Hossain R, Pardo Pardo J, Thomae M, Veras MMS, Chakraborty K. (2012) . Interventions for Promoting Reintegration and Reducing Harmful Behaviour and Lifestyles in Street-Connected Children and Young People (Protocol). Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Issue 4 2012.
Chakraborty, K. (2012) . Virtual Mate-Seeking in the Urban Slums of Kolkata, India. South Asian Popular Culture 10(2): 197-216.
Chakraborty, Kabita. (2012) . Young Married Muslim Couples Negotiating their Sexual Lives in the Urban Slums of Kolkata. Intersections: Gender and Sexuality in Asia and the Pacific Issue 28 [online March 2012].
Nansen B, Chakraborty K, Gibbs L, Vetere F, and MacDougall C. (2012) . “You Do the Math”: Mathletics and the Play of Online Learning. New Media & Society 14(1): 2016-2035.
Chakraborty, Kabita. (2010) . The Sexual Lives of Muslim Girls in the bustees of Kolkata, India. Sex Education 10(1): 1-21.
Chakraborty, Kabita. (2010) . Unmarried Muslim Youth and Sex Education in the bustees of Kolkata. South Asian History and Culture 1(2): 268–281 special issue ‘Health, Culture and Religion: Critical Perspectives’.
Chakraborty, Kabita. (2009) . “The Good Muslim Girl”: Conducting Qualitative Participatory Research to Understand the Lives of Young Muslim Women in the bustees of Kolkata. Children’s Geographies 7(4): 421-434 special issue ‘20 years since the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child’.
Current Courses
| Term | Course Number | Section | Title | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fall 2024 | AP/CCY3999 6.0 | B | Research Methods with Children | BLEN |
Upcoming Courses
| Term | Course Number | Section | Title | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winter 2025 | AP/CCY4999 6.0 | M | CCY Honours Research Project | ONLN |
