Desire and Defiance: A Study of Bengali Women in Love, 1850-1930

Geraldine Forbs is Distinguished Teaching Professor of History at the State University of New York, Oswego. She began her research in India over three decades ago. Her focus has been colonial India, with special emphasis on women’s history. Her first book, Positivism in Bengal, was selected for the prestigious Rabindra Puroskar award by the West Bengal Government. Among her publications on the history and lives of Indian women are Women in Modern India. The Memoirs of Haimabati Sen, and a number of articles and book chapters. The series editor of Foremother Legacies, she has edited and introduced As Indian Freedom Fighter Recalls Her Life, and Memoirs of an Indian Women in this series. Geraldine Forbes is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Women’s History and the editorial collective of Gender and History. Her current work is on Photographic Imagery and the History of Indian Women. In July 2004 she was chosen by the Organizing Committee of the Conference to receive an award for her contributions to Bengali society, arts and culture. She lives in Syracuse, New York which her husband Sidney Greenblatt.