Biography

Himani Bannerji is a sociologist and poet from India based in Canada. She is currently Professor of Sociology at York University, where she also teaches South Asian colonial and post-colonial literature. Himani's interests include anti-racist feminism, Marxism, critical cultural theories and historical sociology. Her research and writing encompass issues relating to patriarchy and class formation in colonial India and strands of nationalism, cultural identity and politics in India. She is a founder and life fellow of the School of Women’s Studies, Jadavpur University.

 Himani has authored several books on India and Canada, including Inventing Subjects: Studies in Hegemony (2002), Patriarchy and Colonialism (2001), Demography and Democracy: Essays on Nationalism, Gender and Ideology (2011), The Writing on the Wall: Essays on Culture and Politics (1993), Thinking Through: Essays of Feminism, Marxism and Anti-racism (1995) and The Dark Side of the Nation: Essays on Multiculturalism, Nationalism and Racism (2000). She has edited, co-edited and contributed to Returning Gaze: Essays on Gender, Race and Class by Non-white Women (1993) and Of Property and Propriety: The Role of Gender and Class in Imperialism and Nationalism (2001). Himani’s poetry has been published in the volume Doing Time: Poems(1986) and she has translated Bengali poems of Subhas Mukhapadhyay, Manbendra Bandyopadhyay and Shamshur Rahman in A Separate Sky (1982).