Piya Chaterjee

Associate Professor
Ph.D., University of Chicago, cultural anthropology
Office: 2011 CHASS Interdisciplinary Building
Phone: (951) 827-5219
e-mail: piya.chatterjee@ucr.edu


Piya Chatterjee is an Associate Professor in Women's Studies who joined the department in 1994. She is trained as a historical anthropologist of South Asia though her interests are eclectic and wide ranging. Educational practice and comparative labor history forms axes of interest not bound by area expertise. She is pleased to be working with dedicated colleagues to create a department that is committed to having its members as active scholars and participants of various international and comparative women's issues. The chance to convey the importance of such engaged teaching and research through the classroom is particularly satisfying to her.

She comes to UCR from the University of Chicago where she did her graduate work. She has always been interested in the relationship between community work and scholarly production that is based on research outside the university. Accountability and the possibility of coalitional work across such divides is a primary concern. With Devra Weber (History) and Marguerite Waller (English), she has been involved organizing the Frontline Feminisms conference in 1997 and also constructing the Rural Women's Empowerment Project. The latter brings together the organizing efforts of rural women in Oaxaca, southern California and North Bengal, India. Both conference and the RWEP have been crafted within a research grouping in the department called the "Women in Coalition." Piya follows Devra Weber as its Director from January 2001.

Courses Taught:

Piya enjoys crafting courses that are interdisciplinary and creative. She views each class as an opportunity to experiment with narratives that tell complicated and interesting tales about gender, culture and power. Because of her training and previous location in Anthropology, some of her courses are cross-listed. Her courses includes material that range across sociological, literary and historical terrains as well.

WS 10--Women and Culture
WS 20--Women, Feminisms and Modern Society
Also taught as Women, Feminisms and Society in A Global Perspective
WS 193--Colonial Encounters: Gender, Power and History
Anth 254--Writing Women: Issues in Feminisms, Representation and Ethnographic
Practice
WS/Anth 133--Women in Cross Cultural Perspectives
WS/Anth 109--Women, Politics and Social Movements in Global Perspective
WS 198 I--Individual Internship

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