She had been awarded the prize for her ebook Ghostly Pasts, Capitalist Presence: A Social Historical past of Concern in Colonial Bengal, revealed in August 2024.
Tithi Bhattacharya, a historical past professor at Purdue College, formally declined the Fashionable Language Affiliation’s Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for South Asian Research in protest of choices by the MLA concerning Israel’s assaults on Gaza.
“This choice just isn’t a mirrored image of the committee’s rigorous work or the worth of the prize itself, however a stand taken in gentle of the institutional silence and coverage selections made by the Fashionable Language Affiliation concerning the continued genocide in Palestine, together with the MLA management’s appalling suppression of the Delegate Meeting’s proper to vote on a proposed decision to boycott, sanction, and divest from Israel,” Bhattacharya wrote Wednesday in a weblog put up about her choice.
She had been awarded the 2025 prize for her ebook Ghostly Pasts, Capitalist Presence: A Social Historical past of Concern in Colonial Bengal, revealed in August 2024.
“I additionally hope that by declining, I can contribute to the pressing dialog in regards to the moral tasks {of professional} tutorial organizations when going through colonialism, brutal state violence, and genocide,” Bhattacharya wrote. “My ebook, which my beneficiant colleagues on the committee have acknowledged, is about how colonial capitalism doesn’t even spare ghosts. In opposition to such energy, I nonetheless imagine our weapon stays solidarity.”
