Principal Investigator
Ayesha Mukherjee is Associate Professor of Early Modern Literature and Culture in the Department of English and Film, University of Exeter. She was educated at Presidency College and Jadavpur University, Kolkata, and at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. Her book Penury into Plenty: Dearth and the Making of Knowledge in Early Modern England (2015) recovered intersections between the histories of early modern science, medicine, economics and literature, with special attention to the works of the Elizabethan scientist, medical practitioner, socio-economic analyst, trader and poet Sir Hugh Platt (1552-1608) who tried to 'remedy' famine. She has edited and contributed to A Cultural History of Famine: Food Security and the Environment in India and Britain (2019). Her next monograph in progress is titled Placing Famine: Cultural and Medical Geographies of Dearth in India and Britain, 1550-1700. From 2014-16, Ayesha was Principal Investigator on the AHRC-funded project Famine and Dearth in India and Britain, 1550-1800 in collaboration with colleagues from Jadavpur University and Aligarh Muslim University in India, and the Exeter Digital Humanities team.
Co-Investigators
Sujit Kumar Mandal is Associate Professor of Comparative Literature, Jadavpur University, Kolkata. He has also taught at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Japan, as Visiting Associate Professor during 2018 and 2019. His publications in Bangla include: Bideshi Phuler Guchchha: Rabindranath Thakur-krita a-Bharatiya Bhashar Kabita-Anubad (an anthology of the poems translated by Rabindranath Tagore from non-Indian languages into Bangla with the originals and elaborate annotations, 2011), Dukhushyam Chitrakar: Patua Sangit (an anthology of traditional songs sung with the scroll paintings of Bengal, 2011), and Banabibir Pala (literatures of the banabibi cult of the Sunderbans region, 2009). He has also published a number of articles and chapters in books. For more than a decade, Sujit has been working with the patua (scroll painter) community in Bengal. His ongoing research is centred on the traditional dramatic practices of Bengal.
Abhijit Gupta is Professor in English at Jadavpur University, Kolkata, and Director, Jadavpur University Press. He graduated in English from Jadavpur University and received a PhD from Cambridge University for his work on nineteenth-century British publishing. He is co-editor, along with Swapan Chakravorty, of the Book History in India series, of which four volumes have been published: Print Areas (2004), Moveable Types (2008), New Word Order (2011) and Founts of Knowledge (2016). He was associate editor for South Asia for the Oxford Companion to the Book (2010). Abhijit has completed an electronic database and location register of all books printed in Bengali from 1801-1867 and is currently at work on the period 1868-1914. His other research areas include science fiction and fandom, physical cultures, graphic novels, and the 19th century.
Samantak Das is Professor of Comparative Literature and Director of the School of Cultural Texts and Records, Jadavpur University, Kolkata. He has written and lectured on nineteenth-century literature, translation, the relationships between the biological sciences and literature, environment, ecology, rural development and education in journals, magazines, and newspapers in India and abroad, including The Times Higher Education Supplement, Economic & Political Weekly, Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies, The Times of India, The Statesman, The Telegraph, The Indian Express, The Hindu, Biblio, among others. Samantak has led, or jointly led, several national and international projects, including those on language learning, digitising ephemera, and creating databases.
Project Fellow
Shrutakirti Dutta is a PhD researcher in the Department of English, Jadavpur University, Kolkata. Her PhD project is titled "A Stitch in Time: Exploring Domestic Craft Practices in Nineteenth Century Bengal". She completed her MPhil from the department in June 2019 and has worked as CAS fellow for the Shakespeare in Bengal project between 2016 and 2019. She has diplomas in Digital Humanities (2017) and Editing and Publishing (2015) from the School of Cultural Texts and Records at Jadavpur University. Since 2018, she has been working to generate public interest in the Gurusaday Museum, Joka. In April 2019, Shrutakirti organised a team that launched a crowd-funding campaign to protect the museum's collection of folk art from undivided Bengal. Her research interests include nineteenth century Bengal, material cultures, women's histories, and travel writing.
Research Interns
Lily Long is currently a third-year student of English and French at the University of Exeter. Her interests also extend to cinema, and the researching and archiving of historical material. She has recently completed her year abroad working as an English Teaching Assistant in a primary school in the South of France through the British Council's prestigious language teaching programme. She has previously worked as an intern on Exeter's Colloquium on Innovation in Modern Languages. Lily is contributing to the creation of digital outputs for the Famine Tales project, including the markup of texts and the creation and curation of digital exhibitions.
Connor Spence is a final year English student at the University of Exeter. He undertook a year abroad at Deakin University in Melbourne where he became deeply interested in the post-colonial impact of British rule for indigenous Australians, as well as furthering his interests in early modern literature and contemporary theatre. Connor has previously worked in Exeter's Digital Humanities Lab, specialising in 2D Digitisation. He has also worked on a project with the University of British Columbia (Okanagan) on TEI XML training. He is contributing to the development of the Famine Tales project website, curating the exhibitions, and publicising the project.
Artists
Dukhushyam Chitrakar is a living legend in the field of patachitra (scroll painting) in Bengal. He was born in 1946 in a patua community and inherited the art form from his parents and his community. During the period of Emergency in India (1975-77), he was imprisoned for writing and performing scroll songs against the controversial policies of the time. He settled in Naya village, Pingla, West Midnapore, and continued to practice the Midnapore School of scroll painting. As one of the most experienced artists of Naya, he has trained nearly all the Naya artists, in painting, singing, or both. He has participated in workshops and exhibitions not only to popularise the tradition but also to train young artists from his community and the students of various art colleges. He has travelled to Australia, Italy, and France for exhibitions of his paintings. His scrolls have been archived in many reputed archives of scroll paintings in India. Dukhushyam has received prestigious awards from a number of organisations, including the Government of West Bengal, for his contribution to the age-old tradition of patachitra.
Rahim Chitrakar, born in 1976, is a well-known scroll painter from Naya, Pingla, West Midnapore. The eldest son of the artist Dukhushyam Chitrakar, and a talented scroll painter himself, he explores the interface between tradition and modernity in the field of scroll painting. He has participated in performances and exhibitions of his own paintings in Tokyo, Dhaka, New Delhi, Baroda, Santiniketan, Kolkata, and other major Indian cities. He has trained the younger artists of his community and many students from established institutions of art. Rahim is one of the few scroll artists of his generation with the skill to prepare colour from natural resources. Apart from archives in Japan and Bangladesh, his scrolls have been collected in several prestigious archives, including the Gurusaday Dutta Museum, Kolkata.
Rahman Chitrakar, born in 1980, is a talented scroll painter from Naya, Pingla, West Midnapore. He is the son of the artist Dukhushyam Chitrakar, and was trained in the art of scroll painting from the age of ten. Rahman has, over the years, developed a distinctive style which is more experimental, combining different varieties of patachitra styles beyond that of the Midnapore School in which he was trained. He paints scrolls jointly with his family, as well as independently, and is especially skilled in composition and drawing. Much of the initial composing, sketching, and final outlines for the scrolls commissioned on this project are executed by Rahman, along with his brother Rahim.
Rabbani Chitrakar, born in 1991, is a scroll painter from Naya, Pingla, West Midnapore. He is the younger son of the artist Dukhushyam Chitrakar, and was trained in the art of scroll painting from the age of seven. Rabbani is highly skilled in both line-drawing and painting, and works alongside his father, elder brothers, and sisters, from whom he has learnt. He follows the traditional style of the Midnapore School and exhibits his work regularly at the annual festival of Patamaya hosted at Naya, as well as at local fairs and exhibitions in towns and cities nearby.
Ushiara Chitrakar, born in 1980, is a talented and experienced scroll painter from Naya, Pingla, West Midnapore. She is the eldest daughter of the artist Dukhushyam Chitrakar, and was trained in the family profession from the age of ten. She has worked collaboratively with her father and her siblings to produce scrolls for many years, balancing the demands of running a household, colour-making, and the scroll painting profession. Her work has been exhibited in numerous well-known local fairs in Santiniketan, Kolkata, and other Indian cities, including the annual festival of Patamaya hosted by her own village of Naya.
Jahanara Chitrakar, born in 1991, is a scroll painter from Naya, Pingla, West Midnapore, with a uniquely elegant painting style. She is the youngest daughter of the artist Dukhushyam Chitrakar, and was trained in the family profession from the age of eight. She has worked collaboratively with her father and her siblings to produce scrolls for many years. Like her elder sister and other women in the Chitrakar community, Jahanara works hard to balance the demands of scroll painting, household work, and raising young children. Also balancing tradition and the demands of modernity, she suc-cessfully runs, with her husband Mahim Chitrakar, a small family business creating unique ornaments in the traditional scroll painting style for sale at local fairs and exhibitions.
Sarbajit Sen is a well-known graphic artist and filmmaker in India. He is based in Kolkata, and his political cartoons and comic strips were published in major English newspapers in the city for many years. His first comic book was certified and exhibited at BD (bandes dessinées), Switzerland; and his graphic narratives have been exhibited in "Mangasia, Wonderlands of Asian Comics", Barbican, London, and in "Following the Box", Kolkata, New Delhi, Chicago, and Los Angeles. His work has been widely published in India and abroad, and Sarbajit is an editor of Longform, an anthology of graphic narratives, published by Harper Collins, India.
Debkumar Mitra is a mathematics major from Jadavpur University, Kolkata, and Gordon N. Fisher Fellow, University of Toronto, with research interests in biomathematics modelling. He worked as a science journalist earlier in his career. He has published widely as a cartoonist, and in the areas of recreational mathematics and designing game shows. This work includes Mindstretch, a book on mathematical puzzles and miscellany, The Mad, Mad world of Elections with Sudhir Dar, and Penguin India Fact File. He also led the team that published the Penguin Reference Year Books 2005-2009 and Penguin-CNBC Business Year Book 2007-2010. Debkumar is a founder member of the Longform Comics Collective, and visiting faculty to the National Institutes of Design, India.
Sekhar Mukherjee is a design educator, animation film designer, and graphic novelist, who is the Director of the National Institute of Design (NID), Andhra Pradesh, India, set up by the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, Government of India in 2018. Having begun his career as a newspaper cartoonist, illustrator and info-graphics artist, Sekhar has worked in many media of communication design. He served on the faculty of communication design at NID, Ahmedabad, from 2002 to 2017, and was head of department for 12 years. He has been the artistic director of Chitrakatha - A biennial International Student Festival of Design Stories since 2007, and received the Best Animation Teacher Award from CNBC-TV18 and Indian Animation Industry in 2009 and 2017. He is on the editorial team of 123 Animation, An Interdisciplinary Journal (Sage, UK) and Longform, A Graphic Anthology (Harper Collins, India).
Aratrika Choudhury is an illustrator and a doctoral research student. Her first comic strip was published in The Obliterary Journal Vol. 2, a collection of short comics and artworks on the theme of the human consumption of animal flesh. She has consistently illustrated for the well-known Bengali children's magazine Sandesh and Pratham Books. Her graphic story 'Zero' has been published by Harper Collins in the Longform annual. Aratrika completed her MPhil in 2018, from Jadavpur University, Kolkata, where her research focussed on Bengali illustration culture. At present, she is pursuing doctoral research on print culture and colonial book illustration at Queen Mary University of London, on a fully funded Principal's Postgraduate Research Studentship.
Argha Manna was trained as a cancer researcher. He is currently a science illustrator who runs an online platform named 'Drawing History of Science' where he blends his passion for science, history, and comics to carve a unique genre. His artwork tells stories from the history of science through comics and other forms of visual narratives, combining prose writing with sequential art. His current collaborative work, with institutions in India and abroad, includes projects on Indian Women in Science (with Sci-Illustrate, Munich, and the Ministry of Science and Technology, India), History of Cell Biology (with the Bengali newspaper Anandabazar Patrika), and stories of the early days of the Royal Society (with the Indian newspaper The Telegraph).
Trinankur Banerjee has a Masters degree in English Literature from Jadavpur University, Kolkata, and is an illustrator and designer. He has worked in art direction for Hindustan Times, Times of India, and Pearson, and as a consultant for government and corporate organisations, NGOs, media houses, and publishing companies. He is currently working with the Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit, the World Resource Institute, and other organisations, on projects related to sustainable development goals. He is also writing, designing, and photographing for a book on rice and its public distribution for the government of West Bengal. Trinankur loves designing book covers and has worked with major publishers like Harper Collins, Picador, and Oxford University Press.
Film Documentation
Bhagirath Halder has worked as a digital cinematographer in the Bengali film industry. He is currently working as an independent film maker. He completed his Masters from the Department of Film Studies at Jadavpur University in 1998. He has taught courses on digital cinematography at the University of Calcutta, Jadavpur University, and Vidyasagar University in India. In 1998-2000, he undertook a solo all-India tour on bicycle to spread the message of film preservation throughout the country through lectures and demonstrations at various institutions.
Digital Humanities Lab
Charlotte Tupman is a Research Fellow in Digital Humanities in the Department of Classics and Ancient History, University of Exeter. She is a member of Exeter's Digital Humanities Lab, with a research interest in Latin Epigraphy. As one of the authors of the EpiDoc Guidelines she is actively involved in the collaborative development of international standards for the encoding and publication of inscriptions and papyri in TEI XML. Charlotte has worked in the field of Digital Humanities for the past decade, specialising in the analysis, encoding and digital publication of textual materials, and with her colleague Jacqueline Christmas she currently holds an Institute for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence Research Award for the project Reconsidering the Roman Workshop. She is providing TEI XML guidance for the Famine Tales project.
Richard Holding is a Developer in Data Integration & Collaborative Environments. He develops web resources for research projects, with particular expertise in development for Digital Humanities research. His skills include the development of custom mapping solutions using the Leaflet JavaScript library, the creation of websites for managing and displaying digital collections using Omeka and eXist-db, and the design of websites and blogs in WordPress. Richard also advises academics and professional services staff on Digital Humanities aspects of bid writing for funders including the AHRC, identifying appropriate technologies and contributing details of development requirements for Data Management Plans. Richard is developing the Famine Tales website.
Graham Fereday is a member of the Research IT team, part of Exeter IT, but based in Digital Humanities. His work is centred around 2D and 3D digitisation, working with specialist high-resolution cameras to photograph manuscripts and other material required for research activity in the college, and producing 3D models of objects and artefacts, primarily through photogrammetry. He also provides technical support for the various equipment in the Digital Humanities Lab, including our 3D printers and nine-screen videowall. Graham is involved in the digitisation of the Famine Tales scrolls.
Dan Brock is a Technical Assistant in Exeter's Digital Humanities Lab. He oversees the day-to-day running of the Digital Humanities Lab's teaching and research spaces, and provides technical support and guidance in the use of audio-visual techniques, 2D and 3D digitisation, and Reflectance Transformation Imaging. Dan has a background in Archaeology and Classics, with primary research interests in Iron Age and Roman landscapes, as well as human mobility and connectivity in the ancient world. Dan is involved in the digitisation of the Famine Tales scrolls.
Tumisang Mbedzi is an Intern in Exeter's Digital Humanities Lab. A 3rd year Archaeology and Forensic Science student, her work in the Lab focuses on 3D printing techniques and photogrammetry, and she has particular interests in 3D manipulation and structure building to represent ancient hominin species. Tumisang is involved in the digitisation of the Famine Tales scrolls.
Eve Alderson is a fourth year History and French student and Intern at Exeter’s Digital Humanities Lab. She is particularly interested in 2D digitisation techniques and the preservation of historical documents and manuscripts, as well as the use of digital archives and public accessibility. Eve is involved in the digitisation of Famine Tales scrolls.
Sophie Hammond is a final year History student and Intern at Exeter’s Digital Humanities Lab. Sophie is interested in 2D digitisation and the preservation of historical material, as well as the creation of immersive experiences and resources in humanities-based research. Sophie is involved in the digitisation of Famine Tales scrolls.
Francis Elsender is a final year Theology student and Intern at Exeter’s Digital Humanities Lab. Francis enjoys the use of technology to improve access to the Arts and Humanities and to create new ways of learning. Francis is involved in processing digitised images of the Famine Tales scrolls.