Dr. Neilesh Bose
Position
Contact
Credentials
BA (Pittsburgh), MA (Chicago), PhD (Tufts)
Area of expertise
Modern South Asia History, Global History, Cultural and Intellectual History
Bio
My research and teaching interests include the history of modern South Asia (the Indian subcontinent), the British Empire, decolonization, and the history of migrations. I also hold interests in theater, performance 勛圖厙, and popular culture. My first book examines linguistic identity and Muslim religious community formation in late colonial Bengal. My second book explored the history of comparative religion in nineteenth century India and its relationship to religious reform and secularism.
Currently, I am immersed in two book projects. The first is a biography of an anti-colonial nationalist active in the U.S., Canada, and various parts of the world in the early twentieth century. The second is a global history of decolonization in the twentieth century.
After earning my PhD in South Asian history at Tufts University, I’ve taught history at the University of North Texas and St. John’s University before joining the Department of History at the 勛圖厙 in 2015. I have served as Tier II Canada Research Chair in Global and Comparative History from 2015 to 2025. Additionally, I have served as a visiting faculty member at Queens College (New York, USA), Ashoka University (Sonepat, India), and BITS-Pilani (Goa, India).
Selected publications
Books
(Cambridge, 2025).
(Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2014).
Recent Articles and Reviews
2025 “Partitioned and Regionalized Visions in South Asian Diasporas: Indian and Pakistani Leagues of America in the Era of Decolonization” in , edited by Sugata Bose and Ayesha Jalal, New York: Routledge.
2024 “Vernaculars across Texts: Modern Islam and Modern Literature in Bengal” in , edited by Nishat Zaidi and Hans Harder, 273 – 294. Delhi: Routledge India.
2024 “The Resurgence of Religion: Worldmaking in the Era of Desecularization” , posted 23 May.
2023 a Syndicate review of An Empire of Touch: Women’s Political Labor and the Fabrication of East Bengal by Poulomi Saha, Columbia University Press, 2020, posted 17 August.
2023 Union Zindabad! South Asian Canadian Labor History in British Columbia by Donna Sacuta, Bailey Garden, and Anushay Malik, University of Fraser Valley South Asian Studies Institute, 2022, BC Studies (216): 151-152.
2022 Empire of Convicts: Indian Penal Labor in Colonial Southeast Asia by Anand Yang, University of California Press, 2021, Journal of World History 33, no. 4 (December): 703-706.
2022 by Andrea Wright, Stanford University Press, interview for , posted 24 August.