Eleonor Marcussen
ResearcherEleonor Marcussen is a Researcher in History in the Department of Cultural Sciences and member of Linnaeus University Centre for Concurrences in Colonial and Postcolonial Studies (LNUCC). She joined LNU as a Postdoctoral Fellow in 2018.
2019/20 she was an MWK-COFUND Fellow at the Max Weber Centre for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies (Max-Weber-Kolleg Erfurt) at the University of Erfurt.
Her current research project is funded by the Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet): Tracks through nature – the railways and environmental consequences of colonial infrastructure in India, c. 1860-1870
At LNU she teaches the courses Criticism and Theory: Current debates in the Humanities (Autumn 2021) and Colonial histories and postcolonial theory: concurrences as historical methodology (Spring 2022).
Previously she has taught World History as an Assistant Professor in History at North South University in Dhaka, Bangladesh (2017-2018) and been a Junior Research Fellow at the School of Ecology and Environment Studies at Nalanda University in Bihar and New Delhi (2013-2014).
She holds a PhD in South Asian History from Heidelberg University in Germany where her doctoral research was conducted in the research group 'Cultures of Disaster: Shifting Asymmetries Between Societies, Cultures, and Nature from a Comparative Historical and Transcultural Perspective' in the Cluster of Excellence 'Asia and Europe in a Global Context', funded by the German Research Council.
Related to the doctoral research project, she taught the course 'Natural Disasters in Late Colonial South Asia: Perceptions, Interpretations and Reactions' at the Department of History of the South Asia Institute at Heidelberg University.
In her forthcoming book (under contract with Cambridge University Press) 'Acts of Aid: Politics of Relief and Reconstruction in the 1934 Bihar-Nepal Earthquake', she examine the organization of relief and reconstruction work by civil society and the state in India in the 1930s. In the field of historical disaster research, her interests include the perceptions of risk, the introduction of new building technologies, humanitarianism and the politicalization of disasters.
Undervisning
I supervise and examine undergraduate and graduate dissertation projects in History. Students interested in my research or with a dissertation topic in Colonial and Postcolonial History, Global History, Environmental History or South Asian History are welcome to contact me for consultation.
I am also interested in supervising dissertations on reconciliation, violence and pacifism.
Teaching
I supervise and examine undergraduate and graduate dissertation projects in History. Students interested in my research or with a dissertation topic in Colonial and Postcolonial History, Global History, Environmental History or South Asian History are welcome to contact me for consultation.
I am also interested in supervising dissertations on reconciliation, violence and pacifism.
My research groups
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Cluster for Colonial Connections and Comparisons The Research Cluster for Colonial Connections and Comparisons aims to uncover the complex links that operated within and across the borders of empires…
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Linnaeus University Centre for Concurrences in Colonial and Postcolonial Studies The Linnaeus University Centre for Concurrences in Colonial and Postcolonial Studies is a leading centre for Colonial…
My ongoing research projects
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Project: Infrastructure and environmental impacts in colonial India Local constructions, global ideas: engineering and colonial infrastructure in Khandesh and Berar in the nineteenth century By…
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Project: Tracks through nature – the railways and environmental consequences of colonial infrastructure in India, c. 1860-1870 By focusing on environmental conditions and resources, this project…
My completed research projects
Publications
Article in journal (Refereed)
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Marcussen, E. (2022). Representations of Disaster Victimhood : Framing suffering and loss after the 1934 Bihar-Nepal Earthquake. Modern Asian Studies.
Status: Accepted -
Chatterjee, N., Mahmood, Z., Marcussen, E. (2021). Politics of Vaccine Nationalism in India : Global and Domestic Implications. Forum for Development Studies. 48 (2). 357-369.
Status: Published -
Marcussen, E. (2017). Town Planning after the 1934 Bihar-Nepal Earthquake : Earthquake-safety, colonial improvements and the restructuring of urban space in Bihar. Studies in Nepali History and Society. 22 (2). 321-354.
Status: Published
Conference paper (Refereed)
Book (Refereed)
- Marcussen, E. (2022). Acts of Aid : Politics of Relief and Reconstruction in the 1934 Bihar–Nepal Earthquake. Cambridge University Press.
Chapter in book (Refereed)
- Marcussen, E. (2018). Cooperation and Pacifism in a Colonial Context : Service Civil International and Work Camps in Bihar, 1934-1937. HerStory – Historical Scholarship between South Asia and Europe : Festschrift in Honour of Gita Dharampal-Frick. Heidelberg, Berlin, CrossAsia-eBooks. 83-102.
- Marcussen, E. (2017). 1934 Earthquake : Making Political Capital from Relief Work. Force of Nature : Essays on History and Politics of Environment. London; New York, Routledge. 109-122.
- Marcussen, E. (2017). Explaining the 1934 Bihar-Nepal Earthquake : The Role of Science, Astrology, and “Rumours”. Historical Disaster Experiences : Towards a Comparative and Transcultural History of Disasters Across Asia and Europe. Heidelberg, Springer. 241-266.
Conference paper (Other academic)
- Marcussen, E. (2021). Pacifism and Decolonisation in the Interwar Period : Faith and Ideological Encounters of Pierre Ceresole. .
- Marcussen, E. (2021). "Dream city of the homeless" : International humanitarianism and refugees in Faridabad industrial settlement (India), 1950-1952. Sixth European Congress on World and Global History 2023: Minorities, Cultures of Integration, and Patterns of Exclusion.
- Marcussen, E. (2020). Transformations of the political in the life of Pierre Ceresole : Religion, humanitarian thought and decolonization, c. 1918-1945. .
Chapter in book (Other academic)
- Marcussen, E. (2019). Pacifism and colonialism : Earthquake relief in Bihar (India), 1934-37. Words about Deeds : One hundred years of international voluntary service for peace. Service Civil International 1920-2020. Antwerpen, Belgium; La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, SCI International Secretariat. 33-35.
Article, review/survey (Other academic)
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Marcussen, E. (2013). ‘A Review of 19th Century Periodicals of Portuguese India : An Assessment of Documentary Evidence and Indo-Portuguese Identity’, by Liladhar Ramchandra Pendse. Dissertation Reviews. (November 19).
Status: Published