Prof. Dr. Priyanka Jha
Long-Term Fellow
January – June 2026
Bio
Dr. Priyanka Jha is an Assistant Professor (Senior Grade) in the Department of Political Science, Faculty of Social Sciences, Banaras Hindu University. Her teaching and research are situated at the intersection of political theory, philosophy, and the intellectual history of ideas. She is particularly interested in gendered intellectual history, focusing on women thinkers and philosophers from modern India and South Asia. Dr. Jha traces the rich and expansive feminist traditions of the region, recovering their historical, political, social, and philosophical dimensions. Gender serves as a central analytical lens throughout her research. Most recently, Dr. Jha is also a Visiting Fellow at the Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Oxford, where she is working on her manuscript on New Social and Political Thought in Modern India.
During her fellowship at GloPhi, Dr. Jha is engaged in the larger research project ‘Us and the World: Gendered Intellectual History of India and South Asia,’ which focuses on feminist philosophical traditions from India and South Asia. She explores the distinct and diverse modes, tropes, and sites of philosophy that contribute to expanding the broader debates on the human condition. By arguing for the reconstitution and transformation of the male and Eurocentric canon, she centers her work on the ‘Ways of Women’ and other gendered beings, drawing upon the ‘oral’ and the ‘lived’ as philosophical sources. Throughout her fellowship, Dr. Jha will examine speeches, pamphlets, and autobiographies as key materials for reconstructing the history of philosophy.
Research
Feminist Philosophy, History of Social and Political Thought, Political Philosophy, Postcolonial and Decolonial Theory, Gendered Intellectual History of Ideas
Regions
India, South Asia
Languages
Hindi, English
books
‘Us and the World: Imaginations, Articulations and Interventions from South Asian Women’ (Series Editor), The New Historia, The New School, New York.
‘Feminist Foremothers and Voices from Modern India and South Asia’, The New Historia, The New School, New York.
Women Philosophers Heritage Collection: Translation, Original Text and Introduction (Section Editor), Section on Indian and South Asian Thinkers and Philosophers, Four Books under Preparation.
Talking about Global Inequality: Personal Experiences and Historical Perspectives (with Christian Olaf Christiansen, Mélanie Lindbjerg Machado-Guichon, Sofía Mercader, and Oliver Bugge Hunt), Palgrave/Springer, 2023.
Articles
“Reading Life as a Text: Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay and the Quest for the Non Canonical Sources,” in Herzl, Namita (ed.), Women Beyond the Canon: Philosphies and Feminisms, Hildesheim: Universitätsverlag Hildesheim, 2025.
“‘Praja’ and ‘Praja Sukh’,” E-Module for MA (Egyankosh), 2025.
“Pandita Ramabai Saraswati,” The New Historia, The New School, New York, 2025.
“Organic intellectuals from modern India: B. R. Ambedkar and R. M. Lohia on inequality, intersectionality, and justice” (with Christiansen, C. O.), Intellectual History Review, 2024, 1–29.
“Thinking the World through Gender: Indian Women Philosophers and Thinkers,” Guest Editor with Bindu K.C. of the Special Issue: Life as Text: Women’s Intellectual Histories from India, Journal of the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists (BRILL), Volume 3, Issue 6, 2024.
“Pursuits of Global Gendered Intellectual History: Narratives from India,” Hagengruber, Ruth (ed.), Redefining the Past: Women Philosophers on Economics, Technology, Environment and Decolonization, De Gruyter, 2023.
“Thinking Inequality Through Socialism in Modern India (1920-1980): Narayan, Lohia and Chattopadhyay,” Global Intellectual History, Taylor and Francis, 2022.
“The Shaping of the ‘Political’: A Gendered Intellectual History of Ideas in Modern India (1880s-1940s),” Journal of the History of Women Philosophers & Scientists, 1/1, Brill, 2022, 48-65.
“Her story of Ideas: Towards a Pedagogy, Reading Lives of Lesser Known Women,” Peace Prints: South Asian Journal of Peacebuilding, Women in Security, Conflict Management and Peace (WISCOMP), Vol. 6, No. 1, 2020.
