- Two steps forward, one step back ? Does India’s new maternity leave policy enhance gender equality? Donner, Henrike. 2017. Two steps forward, one step back ? Does India’s new maternity leave policy enhance gender equality? Policy Forum, April 10th,
- The Anthropology of the Middle Class Across the Globe Donner, Henrike. 2017. The Anthropology of the Middle Class Across the Globe. Anthropology of this Century, 18(1),
- Love, Marriage, and Intimate Citizenship in Contemporary China and India: An introduction Donner, Henrike and Santos, Goncalo. 2016. Love, Marriage, and Intimate Citizenship in Contemporary China and India: An introduction. Modern Asian Studies, 50(4), pp. 1123-1146. ISSN 0026-749X
- Doing it our way: Love and marriage in Kolkata middle-class families Donner, Henrike. 2016. Doing it our way: Love and marriage in Kolkata middle-class families. Modern Asian Studies, 50(4), pp. 1147-1189. ISSN 0026-749X
- 'Daughters are Just Like Sons Now': Negotiating Kin-work and Property Regimes in Kolkata Middle-class Families Donner, Henrike. 2015. 'Daughters are Just Like Sons Now': Negotiating Kin-work and Property Regimes in Kolkata Middle-class Families. Journal of South Asian Development, 10(3), pp. 318-344. ISSN 0973-1741
- Introduction: Revisiting Urban Property in India Donner, Henrike and De Neve, Geert. 2015. Introduction: Revisiting Urban Property in India. Journal of South Asian Development, 10(3), pp. 255-266. ISSN 0973-1741
- Love and Marriage, Globally Donner, Henrike. 2012. Love and Marriage, Globally. Anthropology of this Century, 4(2),
- Middle-class Imagination and Urban Restructuring in Twenty-first Century Kolkata Donner, Henrike. 2012. Middle-class Imagination and Urban Restructuring in Twenty-first Century Kolkata. New Perspectives on Turkey(46), pp. 129-155. ISSN 0896-6346
- Locating Activist Spaces: The Neighbourhood as a Source and Site for Urban Activism in 1970s Calcutta Donner, Henrike. 2010. Locating Activist Spaces: The Neighbourhood as a Source and Site for Urban Activism in 1970s Calcutta. Cultural Dynamics, 23(1), pp. 21-40. ISSN 0921-3740
- Ethnography and Activism: A Critical Introduction Donner, Henrike and Chari, Sharad. 2010. Ethnography and Activism: A Critical Introduction. Cultural Dynamics, 22(2), pp. 75-84. ISSN 0921-3740
- Radical Masculinity: Morality, Sociality and Relationships through Recollections of Naxalite Activists Donner, Henrike. 2009. Radical Masculinity: Morality, Sociality and Relationships through Recollections of Naxalite Activists. Dialectical Anthropology, 33(3), pp. 327-343. ISSN 0304-4092
- New Vegetarianism: Food, Gender and Neo-Liberal Regimes in Bengali Middle-Class Families Donner, Henrike. 2008. New Vegetarianism: Food, Gender and Neo-Liberal Regimes in Bengali Middle-Class Families. South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, 31(1), pp. 143-169. ISSN 0085-6401
- Committed Mothers and Well-adjusted Children: Privatisation, Early-Years Education and Motherhood in Calcutta Middle-class Families Donner, Henrike. 2006. Committed Mothers and Well-adjusted Children: Privatisation, Early-Years Education and Motherhood in Calcutta Middle-class Families. Modern Asian Studies, 40(2), pp. 339-364. ISSN 0026-749X
- The Significance of Naxalbari: Accounts of Personal Involvement and Politics in West Bengal Donner, Henrike. 2004. The Significance of Naxalbari: Accounts of Personal Involvement and Politics in West Bengal. Cambridge Centre for South Asian Studies Occasional Paoers(14), pp. 1-14. ISSN 1476-7511
- The Place of Birth: Pregnancy, Childbearing and Kinship in Calcutta Middle-class Families Donner, Henrike. 2003. The Place of Birth: Pregnancy, Childbearing and Kinship in Calcutta Middle-class Families. Medical Anthropology, 22(4), pp. 303-341. ISSN 0145-9740
- One’s Own Marriage: Love Marriages in a Calcutta Neighbourhood Donner, Henrike. 2002. One’s Own Marriage: Love Marriages in a Calcutta Neighbourhood. South Asia Research, 22(1), pp. 79-94. ISSN 0262-7280
- Gender and Urbanisation in a Calcutta Neighbourhood Donner, Henrike. 1997. Gender and Urbanisation in a Calcutta Neighbourhood. Journal of the Anthropological Survey of India, 46(1), pp. 1-44. ISSN 0970-3411
Dr Henrike Donner
I am an urban anthropologist with research interests in gender and kinship, reproduction, class and urban politics.
Staff details
Goldsmiths Research Centres/Groups
I joined Goldsmiths in 2015 and have previously taught at LSE, Georg August Universität Göttingen, and Oxford Brookes. Most of my research to date focuses on gender and class, and how marriage, the family, parenthood and consumption reproduce middle-class identities and class relations. I also work on urban politics, and have written on the role of neighbourhoods, on the Naxalite movement, urban restructuring, and gendered access to housing.
Academic qualifications
- PhD Social Anthropology, London School of Economics 1999
- MA Social Anthropology, Ludwig Maximilians Universität, München 1992
Teaching and supervision
I supervise research students working on class, gender and kinship, reproductive change, and urban politics.
I invite proposals on gender and kinship, class, urban politics and reproductive labour as well as theories of reproduction and care work.
My curent doctorate students are
Bianca Griffani
Sonia Crivello
Haya Al-Shawani
Daisy Swift
Sarah Ramandhita
Isla Francis
Emma River-Roberts
Research interests
My research is based on fieldwork in India and focuses on middle-class family life, parenting and reproductive change, love and marriage, consumption and the effects of economic liberalization. I am also interested in gendered effects of urban spatial politics and neoliberal property regimes, and have published on homeownership, possessive individualism, and consumer identities in the context of economic liberalisation.
At the moment I am the PI on a collaborative project, which explores poor women's access to housing and home-making practices from a comparative perspective.
Featured publications
2023:
Kinship and the Politics of Responsibility
Donner, Henrike and Goddard, Victoria, eds. 2023. Special Issue: Kinship and the Politics of Responsibility, Critique of Anthropology
2020:
Podcast on Gender, Community and experiencing the Pandemic in Urban India
A podcast discussing the way C19 impacts the lives of women in marginalised communities in Kolkata, India.
2020:
Globalising Everyday Consumption in India: History and Ethnography
Through an in-depth analysis of local, regional, and national histories of marketing, regulatory bodies, public and domestic practices, this interdisciplinary volume charts the emergence of Indian con
2008:
Domestic Goddesses: Maternity, Globalization and Middle-Class Identity in Contemporary India
This ethnography provides a detailed analysis on how midde-class women in Kolkata experience socio-economic change in postliberalisation India through trasnformations of family life.
2013:
Being Middle-class in India: A Way of Life
A collection of historical and ethnographic articles, which offer insights into how middleclassness is constituted and experienced through everyday practices in South Asian contexts.
Publications and research outputs
Book
- Domestic Goddesses: Maternity, Globalisation and Middle-Class Identity in Contemporary India Donner, Henrike. 2008. Domestic Goddesses: Maternity, Globalisation and Middle-Class Identity in Contemporary India. Aldershot: Ashgate. ISBN 978-0754649427
Edited Book
- Globalising Everyday Consumption in India: History and Ethnography Bhattacharya, Bhaswati and Donner, Henrike, eds. 2020. Globalising Everyday Consumption in India: History and Ethnography. Abingdon: Routledge. ISBN 9780367178529
- Being Middle-Class in India: A Way of Life Donner, Henrike, ed. 2011. Being Middle-Class in India: A Way of Life. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0415671675
- The Meaning of the Local: Politics of Place in Urban India Donner, Henrike and De Neve, Geert, eds. 2006. The Meaning of the Local: Politics of Place in Urban India. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0415596237
Edited Journal
- Special Issue: Kinship and the Politics of Responsibility Donner, Henrike and Goddard, Victoria, eds. 2023. Special Issue: Kinship and the Politics of Responsibility, Critique of Anthropology, 43(4). 0308-275X
- Special Issue: Comparative Perspectives on Love and Marriage in India and China Donner, Henrike and Santos, Goncalo, eds. 2016. Special Issue: Comparative Perspectives on Love and Marriage in India and China, Modern Asian Studies, 50(4). 0026-749X
- Special Issue: Revisiting Urban Property in India Donner, Henrike and De Neve, Geert, eds. 2015. Special Issue: Revisiting Urban Property in India, Journal of South Asian Development, 10(3). 0973-1741
Book Section
- Against the odds: Gendered politics of labour, infrastructure and claim-making in Kolkata’s poor localities Donner, Henrike and Dhawan, Nandita B. 2025. Against the odds: Gendered politics of labour, infrastructure and claim-making in Kolkata’s poor localities. In: Aishika Chakraborty and Nandita B. Dhawan, eds. Gendered Bodies and Social Exclusions: Contemporary Issues in Women's Studies. Delhi: Routledge.
- Critical Ethnography as a Collective Feminist Project Donner, Henrike. 2023. Critical Ethnography as a Collective Feminist Project. In: Cecilia McCallum; Silvia Posocco and Martin Fotta, eds. The Cambridge Handbook for the Anthropology of Gender and Sexuality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 65-93. ISBN 9781108647410
- Introduction Bhattacharya, Bhaswati and Donner, Henrike. 2020. Introduction. In: Bhaswati Bhattacharya and Henrike Donner, eds. Globalising Everyday Consumption in India: History and Ethnography. Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 1-26. ISBN 9780367178529
Article
- ‘The Girls are Alright’: Beauty Work and Neoliberal Regimes of Responsibility Among Young Women in Urban India Donner, Henrike. 2023. ‘The Girls are Alright’: Beauty Work and Neoliberal Regimes of Responsibility Among Young Women in Urban India. Critique of Anthropology, 43(4), pp. 399-421. ISSN 0308-275X
- Kinship and the Politics of Responsibility: An Introduction Donner, Henrike and Goddard, Victoria. 2023. Kinship and the Politics of Responsibility: An Introduction. Critique of Anthropology, 43(4), pp. 331-364. ISSN 0308-275X
- Liminal States: Propertied Citizenship and Gendered Kin Work in Middle-Class Kolkata Families Donner, Henrike. 2022. Liminal States: Propertied Citizenship and Gendered Kin Work in Middle-Class Kolkata Families. Critique of Anthropology, 42(4), pp. 457-476. ISSN 0308-275X
Exhibition Catalogue
- Austerity Bites: Food Stories from Lewisham Donner, Henrike; Nicolescu, Gabriela and Santos, Dominique. 2016. Austerity Bites: Food Stories from Lewisham.
Show/Exhibition
- Narrative Trails from the Locality: Rajabazar Kolkata - Exhibition and Seminar Mukherjee, Sujay and Donner, Henrike. 2024. Narrative Trails from the Locality: Rajabazar Kolkata - Exhibition and Seminar. In: "Narrative Trails from the Locality: Rajabazar, Kolkata", Rabindra Bharati University (Jorasanko Campus), Kolkata, India, 21-22 June 2024.
Professional projects
I led the project ' A Room for Ones Own: Gender and Urban Housing in India' that was developed in collaboration with School of Women's Studies Jadavpur University, Kolkata; Women's Studies Centre, Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata; Centre for Study of Developing Societies, TATA Institute of Social Sciences to address issues of women's access to shelter, rights in housing and the provision of legal support to insure rights housing in marginal urban communities. The project was supported through UKRI Global Challenges funding between 2018-2020.
I led the project ‘Austerity Bites: Food Stories from Lewisham’ – which engaged with the effects of austerity politics on food security, social equality, and local foodscapes.
As main marker of identity food is omnipresent in the way we make sense of ourselves and changing times. Lewisham, one of the most culturally diverse but also one of the most deprived areas of London has been particularly affected by the politics of austerity and food is materially and symbolically at the heart of the anxieties residents share. From food banks to allotments, cooperatives and soup kitchens to the rise of independent coffee shops, farmers’ markets and gastro pubs, the Austerity Bites exhibition provide food for thought on how residents perceived the changing local foodscape and how they cope with the pressures of austerity policies, which have an impact on this very intimate part of individual and collective identities and self-making.
https://lewishamfoodstories.wordpress.com/
