Amrita Basu

Amrita Basu is an American academic and political science professor.

Early Life

Amrita Basu was born in December,1953 (age 55 years) in New York, United States as the daughter of parents who worked for the United Nations. Her mother worked on various issues relating to women, and her father worked on issues pertaining to economics. She is a proficient Hindi, English and Punjabi speaker and possess moderate conversational abilities in French.

Education and Career

Basu obtained her Bachelors in Government with a minor in Asian studies from Cornell University, Ithaca, New York in 1975. In 1977, Basu obtained her Masters in Political Science from Southern Asian Institute Certificate. Basu graduated from Columbia University with a Ph.D. in Political Science in 1984.

From 1981 to 1987, Basu taught in the Political Science department as an Assistant Professor at Amherst College. After serving as a visiting scholar at Columbia University for one year, she returned to Amherst College in 1988, and joined the Women's and Gender Studies department. She is the Domenic J. Paino Professor of Political Science and Women's and Gender Studies and Associate Dean of Faculty at Amherst College in Massachusetts. In 1994 she became a Professor in Amherst College in the Department of Political Science and Women's and Gender Studies. Basu was appointed as the Director, Five Colleges Women's Studies Research Center in 2001. in the year 2007, Basu was assigned as the Associate Dean of the Faculty.

Academic Honours and Fellowship

In 1975,Amrita Basu was awarded with the Columbia University Fellowship and in 1979, she was given the Pre-Doctoral Junior Fellowship by American Institute of Indian Studies. The following year, i.e. 1980, she was bestowed with the Dissertation Fellowship by Woodrow Wilson Foundation. From 1981 to 1983, she undertook the Faculty Development Project, Black Studies/Women Studies and in 1984, she was felicitated with Karl Loewenstein Fellowship, Amherst College. In 1990, Basu was awarded the Fulbright Commission Senior Fellowship which she declined. In the same year, was endowed with American Institute of Indian Studies Senior Fellowship. In 1991 she received the Senior Fellowship from Social Science Research Council and was also awarded with Amherst College Research Award for the academic yearS 1991-1992, 1993-1994 and 1997-1998. In 1992 and 1993, she was given the Five College Asian-American Studies Curriculum Development Grant and Peace and the World Security Studies Curriculum Development Grant respectively. In 1993, she was rewarded with John D & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Research and Writing Award. In 1994, she was felicitated with Peace and World Security Studies Program Curriculum Development Grant and in 1995 she was grated the right to convene a conference on Political Violence in India at The United States Institute for Peace. In 1998, she was awarded with the Ford Foundation Curriculum Development Grant. She was awarded the Distinguished Teaching Award at Amherst College in 2008, and she was conferred as the Commencement Speaker, Senior Assembly, Amherst College.

Publications

BOOKS

• Basu, Amrita. "Violent Conjunctures in Democratic India" (Cambridge University Press, Contentious Politics

Series, 2015)

• Basu, Amrita. Two Faces of Protest: Contrasting Modes of Women’s Activism in India. University of California Press and Oxford University Press: New Delhi, 1992
• Basu, Amrita, ed, The Challenge of Local Feminisms: Women’s Movements in Global Perspective. Boulder: Westview Press, 1995 and New Delhi: Kali for Women, 1998
• Basu, Amrita, co-ed. Community Conflicts and the State in India. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1997
• Basu, Amrita, co-ed. Appropriating Gender: Women’s Activism and Politicized Religion in South Asia. New York: Routledge and New Delhi: Kali for Women, 1998
• Basu, Amrita, co-ed. Localizing Knowledge in a Globalizing World. Syracuse University Press, 2002
• Basu, Amrita, co-ed, Beyond Exceptionalism: Violence, Religion and Democracy in India. Seagull Press: New Delhi and London, 2006
• Basu, Amrita, ed, Women's Movements in the Global Era: The Power of Local Feminisms. Westview Press: Boulder, CO, 2010.

ARTICLES/ CONTRIBUTIONS TO EDITED BOOKS

• “More than Meets the Eye: Sub-Rosa Violence in Hindu Nationalist India,” in Karen Barkey and Sudipto Kaviraj ed, Democracy and Religious Pluralism, (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming)

• Commentary on “The Systematic Study of Women’s Movements in Western Democracies and the Difference It Makes” Politics, Groups and Identities, (Vol. 4, Issue 4, 2016)

• “Women, dynasties and democracy in India,” in Kanchan Chandra ed., Democratic Dynasties: State, Party and Family in Contemporary Indian Politics (Cambridge University Press, 2016)

• “The Long March from Ayodhya to Godhra: Civil Society and the State in Service of "Hindutva,” in Wendy Doniger and Martha Nussbaum ed., Pluralism and Democracy in India: Debating the Hindu Right, (New York; Oxford University Press, 2015) 2

• Co-Authored with Atul Kohli, chapter on India, in Mark Kesselman, Joel Krieger and William Joseph eds., Introduction To Comparative Politics, (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 2003, 2008, 2011, 2014, forthcoming 2017)

• “Who Secures Women’s Capabilities in Martha Nussbaum’s Quest for Social Justice? “ Columbia Journal of Gender and Law, (Vol. 19, No. 1, 2010) [Reprinted in Thomas Bloom, ed.,Justice and the Capabilities Approach, (Ashgate, 2010]

• “Gender and Politics,” Oxford Companion to Politics in India, (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2010)

• “As the Empire Falls: Lessons Learned and Unlearned in America’s Asia,” Critical Asian Studies,41:3, 2009

• “Women, Political Parties and Social Movements in South Asia,” in Anne Marie Goetz ed., Governing Women: Women’s Political Effectiveness in Contexts of Democratization and Governance Reform, (NY: Routledge, 2009)

• “Commentary on Transnational Feminism,” Feminist Africa, Issue 5, 2005

• “Women, Political Parties and Social Movements in South Asia,” Occasional Paper No. 5, United Nations Research Institute for Social Development, July 2005

• Co-authored, “Prose After Gujarat: Violence, Secularism and Democracy in India,” in Mushirul Hasan ed., Will Secular India Survive? (New Delhi: Imprint One, 2004)

• “The Europeanization of American Racism or a New Racial Hybrid? Souls, Vol. 4, No. 3, 1 May 2002 [Reprinted in Manning Marable and Vanessa Agard Jones Ed, Transnational Blackness: Navigating the Global Color Line, Palgrave, Macmillan, 2008]

• “Globalizing Local Women’s Movements”, in Basu et al, Localizing Knowledge In a Globalizing World (Syracuse University Press, 2002)

• “Parliamentary Democracy as a Historical Phenomenon, The CPM in West Bengal,” in Zoya Hasan ed., Parties and Party Politics in India, (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2002)

• “Counterpoints: Roundtable on Peace,” Meridians: feminism, race, transnationalism, (Vol. 2, No. 1, 2001)

• “The Dialectics of Hindu Nationalism,” in Atul Kohli ed., The Success of India’sDemocracy, (Cambridge University Press, 2001)

• “Globalization of the Local/Localization of the Global: Mapping Transnational Women’s Movements,
• ” Meridians: feminism, race, transnationalism. (Vol. 1, No. 1, Autumn 2000) “Best Books in Political Science and Women’s Studies,” Women’s Review of Books, Millennial Issue, 2000

• “Communalism Engendered: Men as Victims, Women as Agents,” in Julia Leslie ed., InventedIdentities: The Interplay of Gender, Religion and Politics in India (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2000)

• “Of Men, Women and Bombs: India’s Nuclear Explosions,” Dissent, (Vol. 46, No. 1, Winter 1999)

• “Rethinking Communalism and Fundamentalism: Women’s Activism and Religious Politics in India,
• ” Special Issue on Women and 20th Century Religion, Journal of Women’s History, (Vol. 10, No. 4, Winter 1999)

• “The Changing Fortunes of the Bharatiya Janata Party,” in Atul Kohli and Prerna Singh edited,Handbook of Indian Politics, (Routledge, 2012)

• “Rethinking Social Movements/Rethinking Hindu Nationalism,” in John Zavos et al. edited,Public Hinduism, (Sage Publications, 2012)

• “Introduction,” in Jeffery and Basu eds., Appropriating Gender: Women’s Activism and Politicized Religion in South Asia (NY: Routledge 1997, New Delhi: Kali for Women, 1998)

• “Hindu Women’s Activism and the Questions that it Raises,” in Jeffery and Basu eds.,Appropriating Gender: Women’s Activism and Politicized Religion in South Asia (NY: Routledge 1997, New Delhi: Kali for Women, 1998) (Reprinted in Betsy Reed ed.,Nothing Sacred: Women Respond to Religious Fundamentalism and Terror, (NY: Thunder Mouth Press/Nation Books, 2002)

• “Reflections on Community Conflicts and the State in India,” Journal of Asian Studies,(Vol. 56, No. 2, May 1997)

• “Mass Movement or Elite Conspiracy? The Puzzle of Hindu Nationalism,” in David Ludden, ed., Contesting the Nation: Religion, Community and the Politics of Democracy in India (The University of Pennsylvania Press, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1996)

• “When The Center Does Not Hold: Hindu Nationalism and State Decay,” Harvard International Review, (Vol. 2, Summer 1996)

• “The Gendered Imagery and Women’s Leadership of Hindu Nationalism,” Reproductive Health Matters, (No. 8, November 1996)

• “Why Local Riots Are Not Simply Local: Collective Violence and The State in Bijnor, India 1988-1993,” Theory and Society (Vol. 24, 1995)

• “Introduction,” in Basu ed., The Challenge of Local Feminisms: Women’s Movements In Global Perspective, (Boulder: Westview Press, 1995)

• “When Local Riots Are Not Merely Local, Bringing the State Back In: Bijnor, 1988-1992,”Economic and Political Weekly (Bombay, Vol. XXIX, No. 40, October 1, 1994) [Reprinted in Rajeev Bhargav and Partha Chatterjee eds., Politics In India (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1997)]

• “Bhopal Revisited: The View From Below,” The Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars (Vol. 26, Nos. 1 & 2, January - June 1994: 3-14) [Reprinted in Bridget Hanna , Ward Morehouse, and Satnath Sarangi, The Bhopal Reader, Twenty Years of the World’s Worst Industrial Disaster, (NY: The Apex Press, 2006)]

• “Feminism Inverted: The Gendered Imagery and Real Women of Hindu Nationalism,” The Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars (Vol. 25, No. 4, 1993) [Reprinted in Urvashi Butalia and Tanika Sarkar eds., Women and The Hindu Right, (New Delhi: Kali for Women, 1995)]

• “The State and Agrarian Transformation in India,” Comparative Politics, (Vol. 22, No. 4, 1990: 483-500)

• “Indigenous Feminism, Tribal Radicalism and Grass Roots Mobilization in India,” Dialectical Anthropology, (Vol. 15, Nos. 2 & 3, 1990: 193-209)

• “Democratic Centralism in The Home and The World: Women and The Communist Party in West Bengal,” Sonia Kruks, Rayna Rapp and Marilyn Young, eds., Promissory Notes: Women in the Transition to Socialism (NY: Monthly Review Press, 1989).

• “Grass Roots Movements and The State: Reflections on Radical Change in India,” Theory & Society, (Vol. 16, 1987: 647-674).

• “Complexities of Theory and Practice: The Women’s Movement in India,” The Barnard Occasional Papers on Women’s Issues, (Vol. 2, No. 3, 1987) 4

• “Two Steps Forward, One Step Backwards: The Non-Governmental Women’s Forum in Nairobi,”Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, (Vol. 11, No. 3, Spring 1986)

• “Class, Communalism and Official Complicity: India After Indira” (co-authored), Monthly Review,(Vol. 36, No. 8, January 1985)

• “Studies in Power and Powerlessness: Women in Contemporary India,” Trends in History, (Vol. 4, No. 1, Fall 1985)

• “Two Faces of Protest: Alternative Forms of Women’s Mobilization in Bengal and Maharashtra,” in Gail Minault, ed., The Extended Family: Women’s Political Participation in South Asia,(Columbia, Missouri: South Asia Books, 1981).

GUEST EDITOR

• With Austin Sarat, “Political Science as a Liberal Arts Subject,” Polity (Vol. 46, 81-84, January 2014)

• With Inderpal Grewal, Caren Kaplan and Liisa Mallki, special issue on Gender and Globalization,Signs, (Vol. 26, No. 4, Summer 2001)

• With Paula Giddings, Inderpal Grewal and Kamala Visveshvaran eds., “September 11th: A Feminist Archive,” Meridians: feminism, race, transnationalism, (Vol. 2, No. 2, 2002)

• With Atul Kohli, special issue, “Community Conflicts and the State in India,” in The Journal of Asian Studies, (Vol. 56, No. 2, May 1997)
• With “Women and Religious Nationalism,” Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars, (Vol. 25, # 4, 1993).

Selected Lectures And Conference Presentations

• “Whither Transnational Feminisms,” Women’s World Conference, Florianopolis, Brazil, July 2017

• “Whither National Feminisms in a Global Era,” The Joshi lecture, University of Connecticut at Storrs, March 6, 2017

• Symposium on Amrita Basu’s Violent Conjunctures in Democratic India, India International Center, New Delhi, Jan. 17, 2017

• Discussant at Conference in Honor of Nasser Hussain, Amherst College, Nov. 4-5, 2016 Presentation at Conference on Democracy and Religious Pluralism: A Comparative Perspective, Turkey, India and Pakistan, University of California, Berkeley, Oct. 27-28, 2016 Panelist, “Welfare and Violence in the Politics of Hindutva: A Symposium on Basu’s Violent Conjunctures in Democratic India and Thachil’s Elite Parties, Poor Voters. 45th Annual Conference on South Asia, Madison. WI, Oct. 20-22, 2016

• Panelist, “Styles of Representation,” 45th Annual Conference on South Asia, Madison, Oct. 20-22.2016

• Chair and Discussant, Conference on Business and Politics in India, Princeton University, May 6-7, 2016

• Panelist on Critical Race Theory and Social Movements, Race (In)Action, Conference on Critical Race Theory, Yale Law School, April 9, 2016

• “Women’s Leadership in Community Movements,” Conference on Rethinking Leadership From the Bottom Up, University of Pennsylvania, April 1, 2016

• “Violent Conjunctures in Democratic India,” University of Michigan, March 21, 2016

• Commentator at Symposium on Amrita Basu’s Violent Conjunctures in Democratic India, Global South Asia: Public and Politics, New York University, February 26, 2016

• “More Than Meets the Eye: Sub Rosa Violence in Hindu Nationalist India,” Conference on Democracy and Religious Pluralism, Columbia University, Feb. 12-13, 2016

• “Violent Conjunctures: Hindu Nationalism in Democratic India,” Center for Modern Indian Studies, Gottingen, Germany, June 11, 2014; University of Aarhus, Denmark, May 1, 2005; Social Scientist Association, Colombo, Sri Lanka, Feb. 27, 2015

• Discussant, “Women and Religious Politics in South Asia: Fighting In, For, Against,” Association for Asian Studies, Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, PA, March 27-March 30, 2014

• "UnBounding Disciplinary Knowledge on Ethnic Conflict" Conference on Re-Mapping South Asia: Space, Time, Method, Center for South Asian and Indian Ocean Studies, Tufts University, December 3-4 2010

• “Political and Cultural Expressions of Indian Democracy,” Yale University April 30-May 2, 2010 “Violence and Democracy in India,” Harvard University, December 3, 2009

• Keynote address at Conference on Hindu Nationalist Organizations in Social and Political Context, Nehru University, New Delhi, November 19-20, 2008

• “Trans-nationalism and Religious Violence: Gendered Resistance to Globalization in India,” Rutgers University, February 20, 2008

• “Violence and Democracy in India: When Movements Join Parties Join States” Princeton University, Nov. 7, 2007

• “When Women are to Movements What Men are to Parties: The Case of Hindu Nationalism in India,” The Yale University Seminar on Women, Religion and Globalization, Dec. 7, 2007

• Round table participant on The Future of Secularism in India, Annual Conference on India, Madison, Wisconsin, October 21, 2006

• Workshop participant, The Localization of Global Discourses on Women’s Rights, Wellesley College, July 30-Aug. 2, 2006

• “Democracy and Violence, India: Implementing Pluralism and Democracy, The University of Chicago, November 11-13, 2005

• “Gender and Comparative Politics,” Frontiers in Women and Politics Research, Women and Politics Institute, American University, August 31, 2005

• Closing plenary speaker, at PEWS conference on World Systemic Crisis and Contending Scenarios, The University of Massachusetts at Amherst, April 14-16, 2005

• Plenary speaker, The Scholar and the Feminist, Barnard College, April 9, 2005

• Presentation on Women and Governance on South Asia at United Nations Institute for Research and Development Conference, “Striving for Gender Equality in an Unequal World,” The Ford Foundation, New York, March 7th, 2005

• Keynote address, “The Power of Women’s Violence,” conference on Gender and Ethnic Violence, Duke University, March 5, 2005

• Plenary Speaker at conference on Women’s Education Worldwide: The Unfinished Agenda, Mount Holyoke College, June 2-4 2004

• Discussant, Discourses of Secularism and Religious Nationalism in Comparative Perspective, American Political Science Association, annual meetings, August 2003

• 2003 Hanes Visiting Scholar Program, The University of Wisconsin at Madison, March 10-11, 2003

• Plenary Session, “Teaching About Women and Gender: The Intellectual and Institutional Shape of the Field,” Seven College Conference, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, December 10-11, 2002.

• Panelist on “Doing Women’s Studies: Gender and the State,” The University of Massachusetts at Amherst, November 19, 2002

• Convocation Address, “Women and Other War Time Casualties: Afghanistan and Beyond”, The Noun Program in Women’s Studies, Grinnell College, October 17, 2002.

• The Ugly Face of Mobilization: The Gujarat Riots and Beyond, Tufts University, October 2, 2002.
• Participant in roundtable, “State Feminism, Women’s Movement and Democracy,” American Political Science Association Annual Conference, Boston, September 5, 2002.
• Plenary participant, A Just War? Gender and Global Crisis, American Political Science Association Annual Conference, Boston, September 4, 2002.

• Participant in plenary, “No Turning Back: The Challenge of Feminist Syntheses,” The BerkshireConference on Women’s History, University of Connecticut, June 2002.

• Plenary speaker, Conference on Race and Globalization, Columbia University, NY, October 31- November 2, 2001

• “The Gendered Politics of Hindu Nationalism,” the Fourth Annual Beatrice Kachuk Lecture on Women in India, City University of New York, April 26, 2001

• “Feminism, Race and Transnationalism,” Meridians Conference, Smith College, Northampton, March 8-10, 2001.

• “Gender and The State In South Asia, Northeastern University, Feminist Issues Colloquia Series, February 22, 2001.

• Women and Governance: Concepts and Contexts, presented at a workshop of The UNDP, New Delhi, December 21-23, 2000.

• “Global Women’s Activism: Beijing and Beyond,” Keynote lecture, University of Maine at Orono, November 18, 2000.

• Roundtable on “Women and Fundamentalism,” Women Waging Peace, Harvard University, November 9-10, 2000

• “Mapping Transnational Women’s Movements,” Rutgers University, October 11, 2000. Internationalizing Women’s Studies, Trinity College, October 6, 2000

• Plenary on the Impact of Gender on the Discipline, Annual Meetings of the American Political Science Association, Washington, D.C., August 31, 2000.

• Plenary speaker at session on Comparative Politics, mini conference for graduate students, Frontiers of Women and Politics Research, American Political Science Association, August 30, 2000.

• Keynote speaker at conference on “Gender and Globalization,” University of Illinois at Carbondale, April 14-15, 2000

• Controversies In International Feminism, Clark University, March 20, 2000.

• Women and Democratization: U.S. Policy, Council on Foreign Relations, January 7, 2000 Chair, and participant, round table, American Political Science Association annual meetings, Atlanta, Georgia, September 2-5, 1999.

• Panelist on round table, Assessing Transnational Women’s Activism, American Political Science Association Annual Meetings, Atlanta, Georgia, September 2-5, 1999

• Chair, Plenary, Berkshire Conference on the History of Women, Rochester, NY, June 1999. “Mapping Transnational Feminism,” Pritzen Lecture, Amherst College, April 14, 1999.

• Chair and discussant, “Identity Politics in South and Southeast Asia,” Asian Studies Association Annual Meeting, March 12, 1999

• Participant in Seminar on “Identity and Security Issues In the Symbolic Geography of Global Society,” John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Chicago, Nov. 18-20, 1998.
• Globalization of the Local/Localization of the Global: Mapping Transnational Women’sMovements,” Hampshire College, Oct. 16, 1998

• Discussant for panel, “When Norms Collide,” American Political Science Association Annual Meetings, Boston, September 3, 1998

• Leader of Faculty Development Workshop on Multiculturalism In Higher Education, University of Maine at Orono, June 23-25, 1998.

• “When Parties Are Movements Are Parties,” South Asia and Middle East Workshop, The University of Chicago, May 21, 1998

• “When Local Movements Are Not Merely Local,” Five College Faculty Seminar, May 13, 1998 “Indian Democracy and The Challenge of Hindu Nationalism,” Association for Asian Studies, Annual Meetings, March 27, 1998.

• “The Growth of Hindu Nationalism and Transformation of Democracy,” conference on Democracy and Transformation: India Fifty Years After Independence, India International Center, New Delhi, November 16-19, 1997.

• The Many Faces of Women’s Resistance,” William College, November 6, 1997

• “Indian Democracy and the Challenge of Hindu Nationalism,” presented at conference on Democratization and Decentralization in India, Vaduz, Liechtenstein, June 5-8, 1997; Princeton University, October 31-November 1, 1997; and Asian Studies Association, annual meetings, March 27, 1998.

• Connecting Local and Global Feminisms, conference on “Transforming Knowledge for a Changing World,” University of Maryland at College Park, October 16-17, 1997

• “Engendering Communalism,” at conference on Rethinking South Asian History, Re-visioning South Asia’s Future, Tufts University, May 9-10, 1997

• Chair and participant on a panel on Patriarchy in Asia: Comparative and Theoretical Perspectives from South Asia Asian Studies Association Annual Meetings, Chicago, March 15, 1997. “Sisterhood is Local: Women’s Movements In Global Perspective,” Keynote address, Fitchburg State College, March 3, 1997

• Participant in International Seminar on Diversity Issues In Higher Education, New Delhi, January 21-24, 1997.

• “Hindu Nationalism: A Movement From Above As Seen From Below,” Harvard University, CFIA South Asia Seminar, November 8, 1996

• “Local Feminisms, Global Perspectives,” University of Maryland at College Park, June 18, 1996. “Engendering Communalism: Men As Victims, Women As Agents,” School of Oriental and African Studies, London, January 4-6, 1996.

• Panelist at conference on Black Studies/Women’s Studies, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, November 17-19, 1995

• Participant in Portrack Seminar on “Confrontations and Synergies: The Cultural Interplay of The Indigenous, The Traditional, The Modern and The Post Modern,” Dumfries, Scotland, November 3-6, 1995.

• Keynote speaker at conference on Feminism: Linking Global and National Perspectives, SUNY at New Paltz, October 21, 1995.

• Interview with Terry Gross on All Things Considered, National Public Radio, Sept. 7, 1995 “Women and Hindu Nationalism,” Peace and World Security Studies Faculty Workshop, Hampshire College, April 3, 1995.

• “Women’s Activism and The Questions it Raises”, Cornell University, April 1, 1995.

• Panelist on “Women’s Rights” and “Minority Rights,” Netaji Research Bureau, Calcutta, January 22, 1995

• Participant in round table discussion on “New Audiences For South Asian Studies,” Asian Studies Association, Annual Meetings, Boston, March 26, 1994

• “Celibates, Eunuchs and Rapist: The Real and Imaginary Violence of Hindu Nationalism,” Columbia University, March 21, 1994.

• “Feminism Inverted: The Gendered Imagery and Real Women of Hindu Nationalism,” Yale University, February 24, 1994.

• “Mass Movement or Elite Conspiracy: The Puzzle of Hindu Nationalism,” Tufts University, January 31, 1994; The University of Pennsylvania, February 25, 1994.

• Chair and discussant for panel on Women, Religion and the State in South Asia, Ninth Berkshire

• Conference on The History of Women, Vassar College, June 11-13, 1993

• “What’s Left for the Left?” panel discussion, University of Massachusetts, April 30, 1993. “Rethinking State-Society Relations in Communal Conflict,” Asian Studies Association, Annual Meetings, Los Angeles. March 25-28, 1993.

• “When Local Riots Are Not Merely Local: Bringing the State Back In,” South Asia Seminar, Harvard University, November 20, 1992.

• “The Ambiguity of Resistance in the Third World,” Rethinking Marxism, Nov. 14, 1992.

• “Ethnic and Religious Conflicts in the Post-Cold-War Era,” Summer Faculty Institute, Hampshire College, June 8-12, 1992.

• “The Lotus and The Trishul: The Bharatiya Janata Party and The Growth of Hindu Nationalism,”Asian Studies Association, Annual Meeting, Washington DC, March 31-April 2, 1992.
• “Decentered Democracy and Democratic Centralism,” conference on “Democracy andDevelopment in South Asia,” Tufts University, April 21-22, 1990

• Discussant, panel on “Tradition and Transformation in South Asia,” Asian Studies Association annual meetings, Chicago, April 8, 1990

• "Why Peasant Women Protest,” Conference on Capitalist Development and Women’sLiberation, Center for Social Theory and Comparative History, University of California, Los Angeles, May 15, 1989.

• “The Politics of Collective Identities: Women and Religion in India,” Asian Studies Association annual meeting, Washington, DC, March 17-19, 1989

• ”Reconstructing Tradition: Dilemmas of Indian Feminism,” Smith College, March 13, 1989 “Chair and Panelist, “Women and Socialist Struggle,” American Political Science Association Annual meeting, Chicago, September 1987

• Feminism In India: Issues and Ideology, Problems and Prospects, The Scholar and The Feminist XIV, New York, March 21, 1987.

• Women’s Studies and Women’s Movements in India,” Barnard College, NY, February 12, 1987

• Discussant for “Mahatma: Genealogy of A Fetish,” The Little Three Conference, Williams College, January 23, 1987.

• “Political Participation of the Indian Community in the U.S.,” Asian Studies Association Regional conference, New Paltz, October 17-18, 1986

• “Political Activity of Indian Immigrants: ‘Model Minority’ Dissidence,” Conference on “India in America,” commissioned by the Asia Society, New York (April 16-17, 1986) and Chicago (April 21-22, 1986).

• “Ethnicity, Class and Gender in Contemporary India,” Fourteenth Annual Conference on South Asia, University of Wisconsin-Madison, November 2, 1985.

• Panelist, “The Point of Women’s Education: Accommodation, Contemplation or Criticism?” Mount Holyoke College, Sesquicentennial Symposium III, October 25, 1985.

• “Rebellion and Response: Grass Roots Political Movements and the State in India,” XIIIth World Congress of the International Political Science Association, Paris, July 19, 1985.

• “Constructing Indian Feminist Theory and Practice,” Jawaharlal Nehru University, May 3, 1985.
• “The Uneasy Marriage of Parliamentary Communism and Women’s Liberation: Lessons From West Bengal,” paper presented at conference on Grass Roots Political Movements, LadyShri Ram College, New Delhi, March 22-23, 1985.

• “Women’s Political Struggles in Contemporary India,” Department of Politics, University of Kerala (India), December 11, 1984

• “The Politics of Academic Excellence,” Phi Beta Kappa Address, Amherst College, May 26, 1984.

• Chairperson and Discussant, “National and International Feminism,” Simone de Beauvoir Conference, University of Pennsylvania, April 2-6, 1984

• “Political Mobilization and Immobilism: Gender, Class and Ethnicity in Contemporary India,” Cornell University, January 27, 1984.

• “Peasants, Protest and Women’s Political Participation,” Asian Studies Association Regional Meeting, Northampton, October 15-16, 1983

• “Women’s Solidarity and Struggles: Contrasts Between West Bengal and Maharashtra, India,” American Political Science Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, September 1983

• Panelist, “Textual Approaches to Women’s Biography and Autobiography, Smith College, June 12-17, 1983.

• ”Integrating Women’s Studies into Political Science,” Conference on Black Studies/Women’s Studies: An Overdue Partnership, University of Massachusetts, April 23, 1983.

• Chairperson and discussant at panel on “Understanding the Roles of Women in National Liberation Movements,” American Political Science Association Annual Meeting, New York, September 5, 1981

• “Traditions of Female Seclusion and Solidarity in India,” Five-College Women’s Studies Seminar, Amherst, February 9, 1981

• “Politicization and Grass Roots Mobilization of Rural Women,” Non-Governmental Organizations’ Forum, U.N. Mid-Decade Conference on Women, Copenhagen, July 22-23, 1980

• “Women and Rural Development,” Non-Governmental Women’s Organizations with Consultative Status at the United Nations, New York, May 14, 1980.

Summary

Amrita Basu is an accomplished academic and an author of multiple books. She has written numerous books and edited various articles. She has been felicitated with multiple awards and grants, and she has delivered many acclaimed lectures. This article has taken into account her accomplishments and achievements to the highest extent.

See also

• Feminist economics
• List of feminist economists

External links

• Home page International Association for Feminist Economics (IAFFE)
• Home page Feminist Economics journal