Columbia University

The Afterlife of a Laidlaw Project

Laidlaw Alumna Mrinalini Sisodia Wadhwa's story about a story
Go to the profile of Ariella Lang
Ariella Lang
Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, Director of Undergraduate Research and Fellowships, Columbia University

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"In 1927, Seeta Parmanand (née Ajgaonkar, 1901–79) became the first member of her Oxford college to complete a doctorate and likely the first Indian woman to pursue graduate studies in Sanskrit abroad." (JHI 87:4, 2026) So begins Mrinalini Sisodia Wadhwa's essay on Seeta Parmanand, "Indian Feminists and Orientalist Fantasies: Seeta Parmanand's Reimagining of Hindu Law," which has just been published in the prestigious Journal of the History of Ideas (https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/56/article/1003009). The research for this essay began five years ago, when Mrinalini was a Columbia Laidlaw Scholar. If you want to learn more about Parmanand, read the full article, or for something a bit briefer, check out Parmanand's Wikipedia page, which Mrinalini has expanded to recognize further Parmanand's advocacy for women's rights, her Sanskrit research, and much more. Congratulations, Mrinalini--so great to see where your Laidlaw research has led you!

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