Dr. Elena Valdameri
Dr. Elena Valdameri
Lecturer at the Department of Humanities, Social and Political Sciences
Additional information
Course Catalogue
Spring Semester 2024
| Number | Unit |
|---|---|
| 851-0016-00L | Women in Global History: An Introduction (c. 1800–1950) |
I have been Senior Researcher/Oberassistentin at the Chair for the History of the Modern World since June 2021. I work on the history of modern South Asia, with specific interest and expertise in the history of political thought, the anticolonial movement, the politics of the body and citizenship. Central focus of my ongoing research project Training Female Bodies, Making Good Citizens: Women’s Physical Education between Global Trends and Local Politics in India (1900s – 1950s) is the emergence of girls' and women's ‘modern’ physical education and its role in citizenship building in late colonial and early postcolonial India.
My first monograph, external pageIndian Liberalism between Nation and Empire: The Political Life of Gopal Krishna Gokhale, was published by Routledge in 2022. Based on my doctoral project, this political biography situates the Indian nationalist reformer Gopal Krishna Gokhale (1866-1915) in a transnational context and contributes to enriching the understanding of the Indian anticolonial movement as being influenced since its early phase by global constellations. Engaging with debates on the tensions inherent in liberalism and nationalism, the book provides a nuanced reassessment of Gokhale’s vision of the nation that had a lasting impact on the socio-political context of India in the following decades, well into independence.
After completing my doctoral studies at the State University of Milan, I taught History of South Asia and Southeast Asia at the University of Pavia, and I was junior fellow at M.S. Merian – R. Tagore International Centre of Advanced Studies 'Metamorphoses of the Political' (ICAS:MP) in Delhi and at the Max Weber Kolleg in Erfurt. At ETH, I teach courses that deal with the history of women and the body, technology and development, citizenship and biopolitics in the age of colonialism, decolonisation and globalisation, in particular in Asia and Africa.