A. (Anjana) Singh, Dr

Previous Appointments:

From Feb. 2010 to 31st May 2013, I was a post-doctoral Research Fellow at Department of Economic History (Project URKEW), London School of Economics, United Kingdom.

2009-2010: Lecturer, Department of History, University of Mumbai, India.

Higher Education Degrees:

Ph D                            University of Leiden, The Netherlands (2003-2007)

Advanced Masters    University of Leiden, The Netherlands (2002)

M. Phil.,                      Department of History, University of Mumbai, India (2001)

MA                              Master of Arts (MA) History, Department of History, University of Mumbai, India (1997-99)

BA (Hons.)                 Bachelor of Arts (BA) Honours History, Gargi College, University of Delhi, India (1994-97)

Skills:

2019 and 2020: Professional training in Inter-Cultural Communications (ICC), University of Groningen. These two courses developed in me the necessary competence to communicate effectively and appropriately in intercultural contexts.

2015: University Teaching Qualification (UTQ), University of Groningen, which is a proof of didactic competence for lecturers in academic education. Lecturers with a UTQ certificate are considered to be qualified for academic teaching by Dutch research universities.

2000: University Grants Commission’s National Education Test (UGC-NET) which is a national certification for teaching at graduate and post-graduate levels in India. This is a compulsory certification for teaching at Universities in India. It is a highly competitive national level test which assesses historical knowledge, awareness of current affairs and didactic capabilities.

Publications

Book:

Anjana Singh, Fort Cochin in Kerala (1750-1830): The Social Condition of a Dutch Community in an Indian Milieu (Leiden Boston: Brill, 2010).

Chapter in Book:  

Anjana Singh. “From Amsterdam via Batavia to Cochin: Mid-eighteenth century Individuals and Institutions of the VOC” in Worden, Nigel ed. Contingent Lives: Social Identity and Material Culture in the VOC World. Cape Town: Historical Studies Department, University of Cape Town, 2007.

Anjana Singh. “Botanical Knowledge in Early Modern Malabar and the Netherlands: A Review of Van Reede's Hortus Malabaricus” in Brendecke, Arndt, Stefan Ehrenpreis, and Susanne Friedrich eds. Transformations of Knowledge in Dutch Expansion. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter, 2015. 

Anjana Singh. “Indian Ports and European Powers 1500-1800” in C. Buchet, & G. Le Bouëdec eds., The Sea in History: The Early Modern World = La Mer Dans L'Histoire: La Période Moderne (The sea in history; Vol. 3). Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer, 2017.

 Anjana Singh. “Connected by Emotions and Experiences: Monarchs, Merchants, Mercenaries, and Migrants in the Early Modern World” in Fernández-Armesto, Felipe ed. The Oxford Illustrated History of the World. Oxford: OUP, 2019.

Anjana Singh. “Early Modern European Mercantilism and Indian Ocean Trade” in Strootman, Rolf, Floris van den Eijnde, and Roy van Wijk eds. Empires of the Sea: Maritime Power Networks in World History. Leiden: Brill, 2020.

Article: ‘Tanap Diary: Unequalled Success’ in International Institute of Asian Studies Newsletter (IIAS) (29/56, 2002)

Leuker, M.-T., Kießling, C. and Singh, A.,“Knowledge Production in Natural History between Southeast Asia and the Low Countries” in. Early Modern Low Countries, 3(2), pp.172–182 (2019). DOI: http://doi.org/10.18352/emlc.109

Book Reviews:

• Parthasarathi, Prasannan. Why Europe Grew Rich and Asia Did Not: Global Economic Divergence, 1600-1850 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011) in Global and European Studies Institute Newsletter, University of Leipzig, 03/11.

• Om Prakash ed., The Dutch Factories in India: A Collection of Dutch East India Company Documents Pertaining to India, Volume II (1624-1627), (New Delhi Manohar 2007) in Indian Economic and Social History Review, 47, 2 (2010): 266–68.
• Toby E. Huff, Intellectual Curiosity and the Scientific Revolution: A Global Perspective (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011) in Indian Economic and Social History Review, forthcoming.
• Els Jacobs, Merchant in Asia (CNWS 2007) in Indian Economic and Social History Review, 45, 2 (2008): 303-04. 

Language Skills:

• English: Native fluency in reading writing and speaking. English has been my medium of formal education and the language in which I express my ideas.
• Hindi (and related dialects): Native fluency in reading, writing, and speaking
• Dutch (modern, seventeenth and eighteenth century): fluent in reading, writing, and speaking modern Dutch. For my research I read, transcribe, and translate, seventeenth and eighteenth century Dutch. I have followed special palaeography and language lessons to read seventeenth and eighteenth century Dutch manuscripts.
• Urdu: working knowledge (listening and speaking) and can read and translate texts transliterated into Devanagari and Latin script.
• Sanskrit: Basic reading and writing.
• German: Basic reading and writing.

 

Teaching Experiences:

• Post-graduate teaching at LSE (2010-Current): I was part of the teaching team led by Prof. Patrick O’Brien. The course was titled ‘Scientific, Technical, and Useful Knowledge from Song China to the Industrial Revolution (EH485)’. In this taught course I took lectures and led discussions on South Asia.
•  Post-graduate teaching (2009-2010):at Department of History, University of Mumbai. I have taught Masters level courses for which I was solely responsible. The courses included Maritime South Asia in the Early Modern Period and Medieval South Asia.
• Undergraduate teaching 2000-2001: at Pendharkar College, University of Mumbai. I was teaching several courses including Contemporary South Asia, Landmarks in World History, Ancient, Medieval and Modern India.

Additional Professional Experience and Certification:

2010-2013: My responsibilities at LSE included maintaining and periodically updating the URKEW website. I have organised several workshops and reading group discussions on diverse topics pertaining to knowledge in South Asia.

 2012-2013: I am in the Steering Committee of the Global History Lecture Series, University of Notre Dame in London.

2008-2010: While working as Lecturer at Mumbai University I co-ordinated an international conference in Mumbai titled Monsoon Asia in the Change of Regime. Thirty participants from ten countries attended the conference. I was also responsible for the co-ordination of monthly guest lectures of the Dept.

 2003-2011 Fieldwork: Research and data collection using eighteenth century Dutch and English manuscripts in numerous archives and libraries. Major repositories consulted:

• India:                         

Tamil Nadu State Archives, Chennai, India

Maharashtra State Archives, Mumbai, India

National Archives, New Delhi, India

• The Netherlands:     

National Archives, The Hague, The Netherlands

• United Kingdom:      

Oriental and India Office Collections, British Library, London, UK

National Archives, Kew, UK

 Co-ordination and Certifications:

2013 - 2020: Co-ordination Soundtol Project STRO

2004-2005: Organizing monthly lectures by visiting scholars for TANAP project (Towards A New Age of Partnership). Responsibilities included establishing contact with visiting researchers and faculty members from around the world and co-ordinating with National Archives and Leiden University to be able to organise a series of lectures on relevant topics pertaining to the research project.

2004-2005: Editorial Assistant for Itinerario,International Journal on the History of European Expansion and Global Interaction supported by Leiden University. Responsibilities included, communications, acquiring articles and books, inviting researchers for interviews, co-ordinating editorial board meetings, printing and publishing of the journal, distribution, increasing subscription and assisting with accounting.

2000: I successfully cleared University Grants Commission’s National Education Test (UGC-NET) which is a national certification for teaching at graduate and post-graduate levels in India. It is a highly competitive national level test which assesses historical knowledge, awareness of current affairs and didactic capabilities.

Conference Participation

May 2013: URKEW Conference, Cumberland Lodge UK; Paper presented: The World

of Learning in Europe and Asia, Early Modern Social and Economic History Compared.

February 2013: National University of Singapore, The Bright Dark Ages: Comparative

and Connective Perspectives; Paper presented: Botanical Knowledge in Asia and Europe: A Review of the Hortus Malabaricus.

October 2012: Department Conference, ‘Topography of Power—On the Role of Space and Politics in Medieval Asia’, Venue: University of Bonn, Germany; Paper presented: Cochin: Topography of a Colonial City and its Hinterland (c.1750-1830).

November 2011: International Conference “Non-state Actors in the Transition Period in Monsoon Asia, 1760-1840,” Venue: CAPAS, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan. Paper Presented: Indigenous Response to Western Science: Knowledge and Learning in Northern India (1750-1850).

November 2011: International Conference “Portuguese and Dutch Establishments in Malabar with specials reference to Cochin” IRISH-MESHAR, Palai-Cranganore-Cochin. Paper Presented: Untold Cochin: The Dutch East India Company in Malabar c. 1750.

March 2011:    King’s College, London:‘European’ Ports in Asia from Goa to Macao (1510-1999) Symposium Organised by Francisco Bethencourt & Jon E Wilson. Paper Presented: Mestizos, Merchants and Middlemen: the Social Network of Fort Cochin (1750-1795).

June 2011:      National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London:Exploring Empire: Sir Joseph Banks, India and the ‘Great Pacific Ocean’: Science, Travel, Trade, Literature, Culture 1768-1820. Paper presented: Information Gathering and Knowledge Production in Seventeenth Century Cochin and Amsterdam: The making of the Hortus Indicus Malabaricus, 1678-1693.

October 2010: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU)Munich, Transformations of Knowledge in Dutch Expansion. Paper Presented: Hendrik Adriaan van Reede tot Drakestein’s Encyclopaedia on the Flora of the Malabar Coast (12 Volumes, 1678-1703).

April 2010:      Cambridge: URKEW Symposium. Paper Presentation: Education in South Asia – a conceptual framework for Useful and Reliable Knowledge.

August 2009:             World Economic History Conference, University of Utrecht; Panel Theme: Industrious women and children of the world? Jan de Vries's 'industrious revolution' as a conceptual tool for researching women's and children's work in an international perspective. Paper Presented: Industrious Revolution in the Indian Sub-continent (1600-1800): A Historical and Archival Reconnaissance.

December 2009: Cochin Royal Family Historical Society, Cochin: Paper Presented: The Dutch in Cochin 1750-1830. 

July 2007:      University of Bonn, Germany; Conference Theme: Elites of the Indian Ocean; Paper Presented: Dutch Elites of Cochin: The case of Johan Adam Cellarius (1760s-1795).

December 2006:University of Cape Town, South Africa; Conference Theme: Contingent Lives: Social Identity and Material Culture in the VOC World; Paper Presented: From Amsterdam via Batavia to Cochin: Mid-eighteenth century Individuals and Institutions of the VOC (published in Nigel Worden ed., Contingent Lives).

2004:              Xiamen University, China; Conference Theme: Asia in the Age of Partnership; Paper Presented: From Merchant-Warriors to Landlords: The Changing Appearances of the VOC in Cochin, 1663-1795.

2003:              Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand; Conference Theme: Comparative Studies in War, Trade and Diplomacy in Asia and South Africa 1600-1800; Paper Presented: Company Men, Eurasian Women and Orphan Children: The Social World of the VOC in Cochin (1750-1800).

2002:              Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies, The Netherlands; Conference Theme: Rivalry and Conflict; European Traders and Asian Trading networks in the 16th and 17th Centuries; Paper Presented: People, Places and Perceptions: The Dutch Fortress of Cochin, Circa 1750.

Seminar Lectures Presented:

2012:               at UCL (History Department Postgraduate Workshop 28 May 2012; Rethinking Order and Disorder in Urban History). Paper presented: Spatial Segregation and Permeable Parapets: Dutch Administration of Fort Cochin (1750-1830)

2012:               at SOAS (South Asian Seminar Series; 29th May), Paper presented: Untold Cochin: Dutch Colonialism in Malabar (1750-1830)

2011:                at LSE (URKEW): Urban Water management in Pre-colonial  North India: a case study of Delhi and Fatehpur Sikri

2011:                at LSE (URKEW): The Role of Jesuits in Knowledge Creation and Circulation in Early Modern South Asia (1600-1800)

2010:               at LSE (URKEW): The Origins of the Scientific Revolution and the Experience of Colonized India: This paper was a historiographical essay on introduction of western knowledge in British India and the indigenous response to it. 

2010:               at LSE (URKEW): Institutions of Higher Educations for Hindus: The paper attempts to survey traditional society and knowledge systems and draws general impressions about how knowledge creation, assimilation and dissemination was traditionally organised for Hindus in South Asia.

2007:              at Department of History, University of Mumbai; Paper Presented: Dutch Sources on South Asia.

2005:              at Institute Kern, University of Leiden; Paper Presented: People in History: Biographies of VOC servants in Cochin.

2004:              at University of Mumbai, Department of History; Paper Presented: Cochin as an urban colonial port town 1500-1800

2001:               at Tamil Nadu State Archives, Chennai, organised by the Royal Netherlands Embassy, New Delhi; Paper Presented: The Internal and External Relations of the Dutch in Malabar 1663-1750

 

Conferences, Workshops and Seminars Attended 2011 and 2012:

• Victoria and Albert Museum: The Material Culture for Global Markets
• Oxford University: Early Modern South Asia Workshop: From the ‘medieval’ to the ‘early modern’: Sources, Concepts, Methodologies
• Warwick University: Institute for Advanced Studies: Economies of Improvement: Technical Innovations, the Sciences and the Public Sphere in the 18th century
• British Library, London: “East India Company and Language” symposium
• LSE: URKEW Annual Conference, Cumberland Lodge, London
• St. Anthony’s College, Oxford: The Value of Comparison: India and China; Religion in South and South East Asia.
• St. Anthony’s College, Oxford, Scribes in India: South Asia
• Warwick University:   History of Science:
• Global History Seminars 2010 and 2011, Notre Dame, London convened by Felipe Fernandez-Armesto

 Awards, Grants and Scholarships

• Four year PhD scholarship from University of Leiden, The Netherlands. Funding organizations included UNESCO, NWO (Dutch Institute for Scientific Research) and Leiden University
• One year Advanced Masters scholarship from University of Leiden, The Netherlands
• Highest Aggregate Award during undergraduate studies (B.A. Hons., Gargi College)
• State Bank of India Scholarship during schooling