Anusha Sundar

Anusha Sundar is a Ph.D. student in the History Department at Columbia University. Her research interests include histories of labor, histories of health, science and medicine, and histories of South Asia. Her doctoral project, tentatively titled, Migrant Work, Health, and the Discourse of Free Labor in British India, examines the making of the “coolie body,” and the addresses the emergence of migrant labour as the site of debates over colonial medical governance, evidence-making, and the politics of welfare. The project traces a longue durée history of crisis and exposure in the life course of migrant ‘coolie’ labor in South India between 1840s and 1930s and examines how the logic of labor protectionism projected health as an indicator of risk and social recognition, while reinscribing immobility, and forging new links between deficiency, vitality, and labor power.

Prior to joining Columbia University, Anusha graduated from Jawaharlal Nehru University with a MPhil., and M.A. in History. She received her B.A. in History from the University of Delhi. At Columbia University, she is a co-convener of the Labor History Working Group. In February 2024, the group organized a conference, Labor Past and Present: Bringing History and Activism Together that brought together labor historians and labor organizers to reflect on historical and contemporary developments in the field. She has also served as the graduate student coordinator of the Histories of Health, Science and Environment in the Global South seminar series.