Subhadra Das
Writer, historian, broadcaster, comedian, curator
I’m a writer and historian who looks at the relationship between science and society.
I specialise in the history and philosophy of science, particularly the history of scientific racism and eugenics, and what those histories mean for our lives today. For nine years, I was Curator of the Science Collections at University College London where I was also Researcher in Critical Eugenics at the Sarah Parker Remond Centre for the Study of Racism and Racialisation. I’ve written and presented podcasts, curated museum exhibitions, done stand-up comedy and regularly appear on radio and tv. I’m now working on my first book.
My first book is called (Un)Civilised: 10 Lies That Made the West. It’s about the idea of ‘Western civilisation’ — 10 ideas, in fact — and how they shape our view of the world and each other in extremely unhelpful ways. I’ll be uncovering the racist thinking behind our notions of’ science’, ‘education’, and ‘nation’, the biases behind ‘justice’ and ‘individuality’, questioning the reality of ‘democracy’, along critiquing the capitalism that shapes our ideas about ‘time’, ‘death’, and ‘art’. I’ll also be looking to non-western worldviews and philosophies that, I think, do the job much better.
Head over to the Waterstone’s website to pre-order the book
For all book enquiries, please contact my literary agent Nicola Chang at David Higham Associates.
For everything else, including speaker and interview requests, by all means