Wendy Singer is an historian of South Asia, whose research focuses on the social and cultural history of modern Indian politics. Most recently she was a Fulbright-Nehru senior research fellow in Chennai, India. Her ongoing research project is on the history of "Reservations," India policy that provides designated seats in Parliament, state legislatures, and other institutions for under represented groups. This follows from her longstanding interest in the history of India's elections. Her special historical interest lies in the state of Bihar in north India, where she has lived and worked an which was the focus of her first book, Creating Histories: Oral Narratives and the Politics of History Making. Singer's most recent book is a textbook, based around primary source documents, called Independent India: 1947-2000.

Singer's interest in Indian elections frequently takes her back to India to watch the extraordinary events of the world's largest democracy. Some of that research appear in A Constituency Suitable for Ladies. In addition she has engaged in extended projects Asian migrations, including research among the Indian community in Hong Kong. The result, with the support of the Kenyon's NEH Professorship has been the development of new courses on global migrations and the Indian Ocean. Furthermore, an interest in Tibetans-in-exile in Dharamsala, which was in fact inspired by her interview with the Dalai Lama in 2001, continues to inform her teaching on transnational communities.

Areas of Expertise

History of India and South Asia, Indian politics, globalization and migration, transnational communities

Education

B.A., Ph.D. University of Virginia

Selected Publications

"A Seat at the Table: Reservations and Representation in India's Electoral System," in Election Law Journal, (Vol. 11, No. 2, 2012)

Independent India: 1947-2000. (Pearson/Longman Press, 2011)

A Constituency Suitable for Ladies and Other Social Histories of India's Elections (Oxford University Press, 2007).

"The Dalai Lama's Many Tibetan Landscapes" The Kenyon Review, (Summer/Fall, 2003).

Creating Histories: Oral Narrative and the Politics of History Making in 1930s India (Oxford University Press, 1997).

Courses Taught

HIST 156 History of India

HIST 190 The Making of the Contemporary World
HIST 345 History of the Indian Ocean
HIST 358 Imagined India in Film & Fiction
HIST 458 Gandhi and Civil Disobedience
HIST 121 Globalization and Mirgration-at Home
ASIA 490 Asians in Diaspora
INST 490 Global Issues Seminar