Saptarshi Mallick from India came to Austria for five months in 2020 to conduct his postdoctoral research at the University of Graz under the supervision of Prof. Stefan L. Brandt. His research is primarily focused on India-Britain Literary and Cultural Interfaces, 19th century cultural studies, Serampore Missionaries, Transnational Travel Writing, Rabindranath Tagore and his circle, Women’s Writings, and Translation Studies.
During his stay in Austria, he worked on the travel writings of Lady Abala Bose (1865-1951), which were written for publication in Mukul, a children’s periodical and have never been critically explored. Lady Abala Bose travelled through India in colonial times and Europe, America, and Japan at the height of British imperialism. The travelogues were aimed to motivate the hope and wanderlust in the youth of Bengal and engaged readers to think beyond borders. Her travelogues in colonial India and imperial England relate to and interrogate the hegemonic role of Western ideologies and deconstruct stereotypes of women’s travelogues, thus contributing to the female consciousness and tradition of women’s writings.
His stay in Graz has been a transnational and intercultural learning experience during a difficult time, as the pandemic forced Austria to introduce lockdowns, which made social interactions and research on site very challenging. Therefore, OeAD tried to engage with all scholarship holders online, and Saptarshi has been a pleasant and eager participant in these meetings. He is thankful to OeAD, especially the programme officers and representatives from the regional office in Graz. The support has enabled him to complete his research at large. His supervisor Prof. Brandt kept his spirits up through his liberal approach and generosity.
In 2023, an edited anthology on the Indian classical text in Sanskrit, i.e. Mrcchakatikam by Sudraka, has been published by Birutjatio, Santiniketan, Bolpur. The work for this anthology began during the latter part of his stay in Graz. Now, his postdoctoral project “Transnational Travel Writing: Travelogues and Letters of Lady Abala Bose” will be published by Routledge in June 2024.
We thank Saptarshi for keeping us updated about his success and wish him all the best with his future projects.
CV
Saptarshi Mallick has received his MA and PhD from the University of Calcutta in English Studies. His research has been published in numerous journals. He now works as an Assistant Professor of English at Sukanta Mahavidyalaya, Dhupguri, Jalpaiguri, a higher education institution in West Bengal. He is an Associate Editor of Gitanjali and Beyond, the international online peer-reviewed journal of the Scottish Centre of Tagore Studies (ScoTs), Edinburgh.
