Tools for Success

As an undergraduate, Durba Mitra (13G, History) chose a pre-med track, intending to pursue medical school after college, followed by a career in international public health.

Mitra worked in a number of public health settings in India while she was a college student, but rather than confirm her intention to study medicine, she discovered that she was more interested in the social and historical issues that surrounded medical practice, than she was in the actual practice of medicine itself.

Looking to further her historical and social research at the graduate level, Mitra was drawn to LGS over other options “because of its interdisciplinary programs, particularly programs focused on the colonial and postcolonial world and the superb Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies graduate program.”

For her dissertation, she returned to her research on India, completing her PhD in 2013 while also obtaining a certificate in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. “My research focused on the history of gender and sexuality in colonial India. I traced how ideas of the women’s sexuality, particularly ideas about female sexual deviance, shaped debates about law, science, and the reform of Indian society under British colonialism.

The Laney Advantage

During her time at Laney, Mitra participated in nearly every event of the Laney Graduate School’s Grant Writing Program, which she considers “by far the best professionalization experience I have had thus far in my career.” In addition to learning how to write a grant, and how to write for a variety of audiences, she learned “how to articulate a succinct research question”—a skill, she says, that continues to serve her well in her career. Moreover, she adds, the Grant Writing Program has given her a set of skills that opens up the possibility of a variety of career paths—editing and writing amongst them. This program is one of the many things that gives Emory’s graduate students a competitive edge: “Laney’s Grant Writing Program is one of the few programs in the US that is training students in these essential skills. “

Today, Dr. Mitra is an Assistant Professor of History at Fordham University in New York City. She is also a 2015–16 Mellon Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania Humanities Forum.