Umaima Miraj, a PhD candidate in the Department of Sociology, has been named the recipient of the Muriel D. Bissell International Travel Award. This award, which supports doctoral candidates committed to researching development issues in low and middle-income countries, will aid Miraj in her ongoing research on colonialism, gender, and anti-colonial resistance in early 20th-century South Asia.
Miraj’s dissertation explores the intersection of colonial power, gender, and anti-colonial activism in Punjab during the First World War. Specifically, her research focuses on how the colonial state in Punjab leveraged the turmoil of war and the resistance activities of the South Asian transnational Ghadar Party to increase its control over local populations. Her work examines how state interventions, such as provisions for the families of Indian soldiers and punitive measures against members of the Ghadar Party, were gendered and impacted women in colonial Punjab.
The Muriel D. Bissell Award will allow Miraj to expand her archival research at the Punjab Archives in Lahore, Pakistan, building on her previous visits to major archives, including the Bancroft Library at UC Berkeley and the India Office at the British Library. Through this continued research, she seeks to better understand how women in colonial Punjab navigated the heightened state intervention during this period of crisis, as well as the ways in which these interventions shaped their lives.
Miraj’s research lies at the intersection of empire, war, and anti-colonial movements, with a focus on gender. By analyzing colonial and anti-colonial documents from this era, she aims to provide new insights into the gendered dynamics of colonial state power and resistance, contributing to a deeper understanding of South Asian history during a transformative period. The Muriel D. Bissell Award will help support the completion of her dissertation, furthering her efforts to explore how gender played a critical role in the colonial experience and the resistance to it.
The Muriel D. Bissell Award is granted to students in good standing who are conducting significant research on development challenges in developing countries. The funding is intended to cover expenses related to research activities such as travel, subsistence, data collection, and specialized training, as well as professional development opportunities like attending conferences to present research findings.