Barnita Bagchi obtained a BA in English Literature from Jadavpur University, Kolkata, an MA from St Hilda's College, University of Oxford, and a Ph.D from the Faculty of English, University of Cambridge. Since her college days she has worked actively with feminist institutions and activist organizations, notably the School of Women's Studies, Jadavpur University and Majlis, Mumbai. She is also a translator of Bengali literature into English. Currently a member of faculty at the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai, she teaches and researches a range of issues at the interface of gender, education and development, in contemporary India, early twentieth-century Bengal and Romantic-era Britain.