Tapsi Mathur
Research Interests: science and technology in modern South Asia and the British Empire; transnational, global, and world history
Known Geography: Empire and the Making of a New Discipline
This project explores, from the mid-18th century to the early 20th century, the involvement of indigenous explorers in mapping South Asia and Central Asia alongside Europeans.
Tapsi Mathur is currently working on her book manuscript of the same name. She situates a now-buried tradition of "indigenous" exploration as it emerged in conjunction with European exploration of South Asia and Central Asia, from its beginnings in the mid-18th century to the early 20th century. She examines this tradition to understand how the work of these indigenous explorers was represented and reproduced for metropolitan scientific audiences, in order to trace a new lineage for the creation of the modern discipline of geography, deeply implicated in the mechanisms of empire.
Tapsi Mathur is a historian at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. She grew up in India, where she earned her bachelor's degree in history from the University of Delhi and her master's and MPhil degrees in modern history from Jawaharlal Nehru University. She completed her Ph.D. in history at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in the United States, in 2018.
Her research and teaching interests include science and technology in modern South Asia and the British Empire, as well as transnational, global, and world history. As part of her broader commitment to academic outreach and digital humanities, Tapsi Mathur also serves as co-editor of the oldest South Asian studies blog in the United States, Chapati Mystery.