Prachi Deshpande

Prachi Deshpande (born 14 December 1972) is an Indian historian and Associate Professor in History at Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta.^[1]

Prachi Deshpande
Born	(1972-12-14) 14 December 1972 (age 52)
Nationality	Indian
Title	Associate Professor in History
Awards	Infosys Prize (2020)
Academic background
Alma mater	Tufts University, United States Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi Fergusson University, Pune
Academic work
Discipline	History
Sub-discipline	Social and cultural history of historiography, language, and regional identities.
Institutions	Colorado State University Rutgers University UC Berkeley Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta
Website	Official Website

Education

Deshpande completed her undergraduate and post graduate education in History at Fergusson College, Pune and Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi respectively before moving to the United States to pursue her PhD from Tufts University, Medford, MA.^[1]

Career

Post her doctoral education at Tufts University, MA in 2002, Deshpande served as an assistant professor at several institutions in the United States including Colorado State University (2002 - 2004), Rutgers University (2004 - 2006), University of California, Berkeley (2006–2010). In 2010, she returned to India to take up her present position at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences in Kolkata.^[1] Currently she is Consulting Editor of the Journal of the History of Ideas.

Publications

Deshpande has publications both in Marathi and English. Her book, Creative Pasts: Historical Memory and Identity in Western India, 1700-1960 (2007) explores modern history writing practices in Marathi-speaking parts of Western India and its impact on shaping Maharashtrian regional identity.^[2] Her other notable academic work include 'Scripting the Cultural History of Language: Modi in the Colonial Archive' and 'The writerly self: Literacy, discipline and codes of conduct in early modern western India (2016)'.^[2]

• Creative Pasts: Historical Memory and Identity in Western India, 1700-1960 (2007)
• Shuddhalekhan Orthography, Community and the Marathi Public Sphere (2016)
• The writerly self: Literacy, discipline and codes of conduct in early modern western India (2016)

Awards

In 2020, Deshpande received the Infosys Prize for Humanities – History for her extraordinarily nuanced and highly sophisticated treatment of South Asian historiography.^[2][3]