Sukanya Chakrabarti, Ph.D.

Office: HGH 212
(408) 924-4411
sukanya.chakrabarti@sjsu.edu

Born and raised in Kolkata, Dr. Sukanya Chakrabarti, an artist-scholar-teacher, received her doctoral degree in Theater and Performance Studies from Stanford University.

Dr. Chakrabarti is the author of In-Between Worlds: Performing [as] Bauls in an Age of Extremism, which examines the performance of Bauls, ‘folk’ performers from Bengal, in the context of a rapidly globalizing Indian economy against the backdrop of extreme nationalistic discourses. Chakrabarti's works have been published in peer-reviewed journals such as Indian Theatre Journal; Asian Theatre Journal; Modern Drama; Urban Geography; Ecumenica: Performance and Religion; and Emergency Index. She published a chapter, “‘Go back to India if you hate my people so much’: Consequences of Troubling and Reimagining the ‘Canon’ in American Academia” in Troubling Traditions: Canonicity, Theatre, and Performance in the U.S., edited by Lindsey Mantoan, Matthew Moore, and Angela Farr Schiller (Routledge).

Both as a scholar and an artist, she is interested in spaces and their contribution to meaning-making, placemaking and storytelling. Her current and ongoing research project is on performances of the South Asian diaspora across generations of immigration in California. As an artist, she has worked as a playwright, director, dramaturg, and performer in New York, the Bay Area, and Kolkata. Most recently, she served as the Cultural Dramaturg for new works such as Public Obscenities by Shayok Misha Chowdhury produced by Soho Rep and NAATCO, and Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company; and Nerves by Minita Gandhi, produced by TheatreWorks Silicon Valley as part of their New Works Festival 2023. More details about her projects can be found on her website: www.sukanyac.com