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Dr. Shriya Patnaik has a PhD in International History and Politics (Summa cum Laude) from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (IHEID) in Switzerland, where her research has been supported by the Swiss Government Excellence Scholarship, Swiss National Science Foundation Doctoral Grant, Swiss Network of International Studies, Swiss Academy of Social Sciences and Humanities, and the Geneva Graduate Institute’s Community Scholarship. Her research has been published in leading peer-reviewed journals and in book chapters for edited volumes with Routledge, Taylor and Francis, Springer, and Palgrave Macmillan, among others. Shriya pursued her Bachelor’s in History from Cornell University (Magna cum Laude Honours) in 2014 as a Cornell Tata Scholar. She subsequently pursued a Double Masters’ in International History with a focus on Gender Studies from the Columbia University-London School of Economics Dual Degree MA-MSc program (with a Distinction) in 2017. During her undergraduate years, she was selected to be a part of an Exchange program at Oxford University’s Mansfield College on a full scholarship, where she undertook tutorials in History and Political Science. During her academic trajectory so far, Shriya has been closely involved in conducting archival, qualitative, and quantitative research for various data-driven projects, including for the Cornell University’s Language Acquisition Lab, Cornell’s Future of Minority Studies Project, the LSE Women’s Library, Columbia University’s Rare Book and Manuscripts Library, Heidelberg University’s Odisha Research Project, and the Odisha High Court and Judicial Archives. In addition to her scholarly interests, Shriya has also worked in the public policy and NGO sectors on gender and human rights projects across India, the United States, and the United Kingdom. These experiences have played a key role in shaping her research focus on women’s rights and minority rights initiatives at a transnational scale. Shriya is currently a Research Associate at the Pierre du Bois Foundation in Switzerland and is a part of the United Nations’ Centenary of the International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation of the League of Nations research project. She is also a Guest Lecturer at Utkal University, where she delivers in-person and online lectures for their Department of History. Additionally, she serves as a research affiliate with the Graduate Institute’s Gender Centre and the Global Migration Centre. In terms of her linguistic abilities, she is fully proficient in English, Hindi, and Oriya, has a medium level of proficiency in Sanskrit, and has a beginner’s level of proficiency in French.

Recent Publications

1. Shriya Patnaik, “Tracing Historical Disruptions in the Sex Worker Rights Movement in Late Colonial and Postcolonial India through Testimonies from within the Community.” Book Chapter in Catherine Phipps (eds) Histories of Sex Work Around the World (London: Routledge, 2024): pp. 188-213. (https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003386612).
2. Shriya Patnaik, “Mutating Modalities of Performative Culture and Social Regulation in Conceptualizing Alternative Histories of Tawaifs across Colonial and Postcolonial India.” Book Chapter in Anurima Banerji, Royona Mitra and Jasmine Johnson (eds) Oxford Handbook of Dance Praxis (New York: Oxford University Press, 2024, forthcoming).
3. Shriya Patnaik, “Marginalizing the Matriarchal, Minority Subject: A Study of the Policing and Disenfranchisement of Performative, Matriarchal Communities in Colonial India.” Book Chapter in R. Srinivasan (eds) Borders: Physical, Social and Cultural (New Delhi: HOW Academics, 2023): pp. 111-141. ISSN 978-93-95522-94-6.
4. Shriya Patnaik, “Exploring the Contested and Controversial Nature of the Sex Industry in India: Experiential Encounters by Sex-Workers from the Periphery.” Book Chapter in Abhiruchi Ojha and Pramod Jaiswal (eds) South Asian Women and International Relations (Singapore: Springer-Palgrave Macmillan, 2023): https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-9426-5_15
5. Shriya Patnaik, “Sex-workers Defying Patriarchy and Challenging State Reform and Rehabilitation Projects in India: Voices from the Margins.” Feminist Encounters: A Journal of Critical Studies in Culture and Politics Vol 7, Special Issue on Gender Activism in India, 7:1 (2023): https://doi.org/10.20897/femenc/12883
6. Shriya Patnaik, “Marginalizing the Matriarchal, Minority Subject: A Critical Analysis of Human Rights and Women’s Reform Projects in Colonial and Postcolonial India through the Case-Study of the ‘Mahari-Devadasi’.” Electronic Journal of Social and Strategic Studies Vol 2, Special Issue 1 (2021). (DOI: 10.47362/EJSSS.2021.2105)
7. Shriya Patnaik, “The Invisible Voices of India’s Informal Sector Sex Workers.” LSE South Asia Centre Blog (2021): https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/southasia/2021/03/22/the-invisible-voices-of-indias-informal-sector-sex-workers/?fbclid=IwAR3Z3Zr4yirSxGjAxrAj7bh-7g3cSgvX0QTXDNNZSuIs_Mbq11pX79Vw2tI
8. Shriya Patnaik, “The Lost Life Stories of Mahari-Devadasis in Postcolonial India (1947-2015).” Borderlines (2021): https://www.borderlines-cssaame.org/posts/2021/5/24/the-lost-life-stories-of-mahari-devadasis-in-postcolonial-india?fbclid=IwAR2XgDC9WpEwaG1fj2Ohj_KvqmNVIrEMb5SYaPsHhgrtEI16LU5zTlgFv0M
9. Shriya Patnaik, “The Missing Life Stories of India’s Sex Workers.” Graduate Institute Gender Centre (2020): https://www.graduateinstitute.ch/communications/news/missing-life-stories-indias-sex-workers?fbclid=IwAR1EBjCvP1f5NlSei-4iFhpcvHa4gXs2w-iphGuxaCORnAYrPRlJxv42vG0
10. Swiss Network of International Studies Podcast (2021): https://snis.ch/awards/the-minority-question-a-critical-analysis-of-gender-human-rights-and-womens-reform-projects-in-colonial-and-postcolonial-india-through-the-figure-of-the-mahari-devadasi/?fbclid=IwAR03dCGPYW9TjbImJCoUSpAWRKLj46wB1N1GxkKHwyLDysgkh5PMAHtswbI

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Expertise by Geography

Asia, British Isles, India, United Kingdom

Expertise by Chronology

19th century, Early Modern, Modern, 20th century, 21st century

Expertise by Topic

Colonialism, Emancipation, Gender, Human Rights, Labor, Law, Libraries & Archives, Local & Regional, Public History, Sexuality, Sexual Violence, Urban History, Women