Dr. Rukmini Barua is an assistant professor of South Asian History in the Department of History. Before joining York University, Rukmini was a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for the History of Emotions, Max Planck Institute for Human Development.

Her research examines questions at the intersection of urban politics, labour and emotions with a focus on colonial and postcolonial India. Her first monograph, ‘In the Shadow of the Mill: Workers’ Neighbourhoods in Ahmedabad, 1920s to 2000s’, published by Cambridge University Press in 2022, analyses urban change through the prism of everyday political practice and property relations in the Indian industrial city of Ahmedabad. Rukmini’s second book project is a historical ethnography of working-class intimacy, conjugality and domesticity in 20th and 21st century India.

Her research has appeared in International Labor and Working-Class History, L’Homme. Zeitschrift für feministische Geschichtswissenschaft and in a recent edited volume on Feelings and Work in Modern History: Emotional Labour and Emotions about Labour.

Publications

‘In the Shadow of the Mill: Workers’ Neighbourhoods in Ahmedabad, 1920s to 2000s’

Research Interests

Current Courses

Term	Course Number	Section	Title	Type
Winter 2024	AP/HIST3797 3.0	M	India in the Twentieth Century	LECT
Fall/Winter 2023	AP/HIST4999 6.0	A	Special Topics In History	SEMR

Dr. Rukmini Barua is an assistant professor of South Asian History in the Department of History. Before joining York University, Rukmini was a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for the History of Emotions, Max Planck Institute for Human Development.

Her research examines questions at the intersection of urban politics, labour and emotions with a focus on colonial and postcolonial India. Her first monograph, ‘In the Shadow of the Mill: Workers’ Neighbourhoods in Ahmedabad, 1920s to 2000s’, published by Cambridge University Press in 2022, analyses urban change through the prism of everyday political practice and property relations in the Indian industrial city of Ahmedabad. Rukmini’s second book project is a historical ethnography of working-class intimacy, conjugality and domesticity in 20th and 21st century India.

Her research has appeared in International Labor and Working-Class History, L’Homme. Zeitschrift für feministische Geschichtswissenschaft and in a recent edited volume on Feelings and Work in Modern History: Emotional Labour and Emotions about Labour.

Publications

‘In the Shadow of the Mill: Workers’ Neighbourhoods in Ahmedabad, 1920s to 2000s’

Degrees

PhD, University of Göttingen (2016)
MPhil, Delhi School of Economics, Delhi University (2010)
MA, Delhi School of Economics, Delhi University (2004)
BA, Sociology, Delhi University (2002)

Research Interests

Current Courses

Term	Course Number	Section	Title	Type
Winter 2024	AP/HIST3797 3.0	M	India in the Twentieth Century	LECT
Fall/Winter 2023	AP/HIST4999 6.0	A	Special Topics In History	SEMR