Debolina Dey

Debolina loves to study cultural imaginations which explore the interplay between material contexts and their metaphorical and/or idiomatic expressions. How do material practices express themselves as ideas and then how do ideas interact, mutate and transform as constellations and clusters and express themselves as form?

She completed her Bachelor’s and Master’s from Lady Shri Ram College for Women, Delhi University, and her PhD from Delhi University. She was a fellow at Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin (2013−14). She also received the Charles Wallace India Trust Scholarship (2012−13) and has been recently awarded the Barker Visiting Fellowship at Durham.

She has previously taught at Lady Shri Ram College for Women and Ramjas College, University of Delhi (2015−2023). Her research interests include 19^th-century literary forms, and health humanities/cultural histories of health. She also works with digital cultures and affective currency in digital contexts.

She loves to read about food cultures, visual art and write creatively. She confesses to having a weak spot for teaching poetry (especially sufi poetry) and drama even though she loves to engage with other narrative forms. She especially loves to teach texts that deal with myths and archetypes like Dr. Faustus, Frankenstein, and the Mahabharata (selections).

Publications

Chapter in Edited Book

Dey, D. (2016). Introduction to Pablo Neruda. In S. Sati (Ed.), A Warble of Postcolonial Voices, II, 3 – 21. Worldview Critical Edition.

Journal Articles

Dey, D. (2022). Perception/deception: Fictional selves and the peculiar digital phenomenon of catfishing. Asiascape: Digital Asia, 9, 95 – 118. 10.1163/22142312-bja10029
Dey, D. (2021). Pathologizing poverty: The metaphor of contagion from the new poor law to public health. Journal of Interdisciplinary History of Ideas, 9, 1 – 27. https://journals.openedition.org/jihi/1548
Dey, D. (2017). Inf(l)ecting each other: “A moral infection as a Physical One” in Dickens’ Oliver Twist and Bleak House. Lapis Lazuli, 7(1), 139 – 155. https://pintersociety.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Dey-Debolina‑8.pdf

Newspaper Article

Dey, D. (2022, October 14). Only the great Indian parivar is in Maja Ma: Looking at Madhuri Dixit film from a queer lens. Indian Express. https://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/bollywood/only-the-great-indian-parivar-is-in-maja-ma-8203858/

Magazine Articles

Dey, D. & Dasgupta, D. (2021, October). Re-cognising (AI) Art: Looking Back/Forward. Debolina Dey and Debanuj Dasgupta. Take On Art. https://takeonartmagazine.com/reviews/re-cognizing-ai-art-looking-back-forward/
Dey, D. (2020, September 11). Who doesn’t put ghee in their khichuri? Himal Southasian. https://www.himalmag.com/comment/who-doesnt-put-ghee-in-their-khichuri-2020
Dey, D. (June 2014). Mustard zing and noodle soup slurp: Loving through food in a foreign land. Café Dissensus. https://cafedissensus.com/2014/06/30/mustard-zing-and-noodle-soup-slurp-loving-through-food-in-a-foreign-land/

Online Articles

Dey, D. (2019, October 06). How I said goodbye to queer anxiety During Durga Pujo”, HuffPost India. https://www.huffpost.com/archive/in/entry/queer-anxiety-durga-puja_in_5d97035ee4b0f5bf79726f8c
Dey, D. (2019, February 03). A Lesbian Bollywood Buff, I’ve Waited For ‘Ek Ladki Ko Dekha To Aisa Laga’ All My Life! HuffPost India. https://www.huffpost.com/archive/in/entry/a‑lesbian-bollywood-buff-ive-waited-for-ek-ladki-ko-all-my-life_in_5c57b774e4b087104754a4d5

Poetry

Dey, D. (2023). Ward no 20, Subhashpally. B. Ghosh & P. Garg (Eds.). The Window Journal. https://thewindowjournal.com/2023/06/12/ward-no-20-subhashpally/
Dey, D. (2023). Window shopping in Connaught Place. B. Ghosh & P. Garg (Eds.). The Window Journal. https://thewindowjournal.com/2023/06/12/window-shopping-in-connaught-place/
Dey, D. (2022). The body remembers rain (II). S.P. Kumar & V. Agarwal (Eds.). Yearbook of Indian Poetry in English. Hawakal Publishers.
Dey, D. (2022). The body remembers rain (I). Khushk Zubaan Bebaak Jigar. Red River Press.
Dey, D. (2022). The body remembers rain (II). Khushk Zubaan Bebaak Jigar. Red River Press.
Dey, D. (2022). Tasting salt. R. Ahmad & S. Ali (Eds.). Khushk Zubaan Bebaak Jigar. Red River Press
Dey, D. (2020). Far side of the moon: The gaze of woman. The Guftugu Collection. Indian Cultural Forum.
Dey, D. (2019). Sea salt. Muse India.
Dey, D. (2019). Ferns and kelps. Muse India.
Dey, D. (2019). Reading love into a letter. Muse India.
Dey, D. (2019). Being late. Muse India.
Dey, D. (2015). Sound. Northeast Review.

Paper Presentations

Dey, D. (2022, March). Deserving of Care? Re-reading the Victorian Workhouse. North-East Modern Language Association, Michigan.
Dey, D. (2021, February). Fiction here is likely to contain more truth than fact: Queer Time in Jeanette Winterson’s Fiction. Historical Fictions Research Network.
Dey, D. (2019, April). Deviant/Defiant: Forms of Vagrancy as Exceptions to the Rule. Jawaharlal Nehru University.
Dey, D. (2015, March). Interrogating the ‘Scientific’: Disseminating Sanitary Knowledge in Victorian England. Ramjas College, Delhi University.
Dey, D. (2014, January). Inf(l)ecting Each Other: Contagious Metaphors in Victorian England. University of Oxford.
Dey, D. (2013, September). Plaguing the Cultural Imagination: The Relationship of Paupers to British National Identity. University of Warwick, Coventry, United Kingdom.
Dey, D. (2012, December). Contagion in the Cultural Imagination of Victorian England: Oliver Twist and Bleak House. Jadavpur University, Calcutta.

Lectures

Dey, D. (2022, December). Digital Intimacies, Literary Masquerades. [Lecture]. Ashoka University, Sonepat.
Dey, D. (2019, March). The Human as a Rhetorical Trope. [Lecture]. Ambedkar University Delhi.

Interview

Dey, D. (personal communication, June 2018). ‘Pride and Queer Movements in India – An interview with Debolina Dey’. The YP Foundation (TYPF). https://theypfoundation.org/resources/interview-debolina-dey/