Prof. Amrita Basu

Prof. Basu specializes in South Asian politics, with particular interests in religious nationalism, women’s activism and social movements. Her most influential publications concern the complicated relationship between feminist and women's movements, the prominent role of women in the religious right, the relationship of local movements to larger global forces, and the synergies and tensions among Hindu nationalist organizations. She has published seven edited or single authored books, including Two Faces of Protest: Contrasting Modes of Women’s Activism in India and Women’s Movements in a Global Era: The Challenge of Local Feminisms. She teaches courses on women's activism, human rights and post-colonial nationalism. She was Associate Dean of the Faculty at Amherst College from 2007-2010. Basu has been a member of the editorial boards of The Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars since 1992, the International Feminist Journal of Politics since 2002 and Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism since 2001. She was the South Asia editor for The Journal of Asian Studies from 1995-2001. Basu has served on academic committees of the Asian Studies Association, the American Political Science Association and the American Institute of Indian Studies. She has participated in external reviews of Mount Holyoke, Hampshire College, Wellesley College, Columbia University, the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. In 2001, Basu was a consultant to the United Nations Development Program Project on Women and Governance in New Delhi, India. Basu has served on several advisory and selection committees including the Ford Foundation, the Social Science Research Council, the Fulbright Scholar Awards Committee, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.