Shailaja Paik

Shailaja Paik (born 1973 or 1974) is an Indian historian of modern Indian history who focuses on intersections of class, sexuality, and caste, with a particular emphasis on Dalit experiences and perspectives. She is currently the Charles Phelps Taft Distinguished Research Professor of History and affiliate faculty in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Asian Studies at the University of Cincinnati. She is a 2024 MacArthur Fellow.^[1]

Paik was born into a Marathi-speaking Dalit family in Pohegaon, Maharashtra, India, where she was one of four daughters. The family moved to Pune, where Paik grew up in a "one-room house in a slum area" in Yerawada. Her parents, and especially her father, encouraged the girls to obtain an education.^[2]

Paik attended Nowrosjee Wadia College and Savitribai Phule Pune University (1994 BA, 1996 MA) before earning her PhD in 2007 from the University of Warwick.^[1][3]

Paik first came to the U.S. in 2005, as part of a fellowship from Emory University.^[2]

Paik has previously worked at Union College as a visiting assistant professor of history (2008–2010) and at Yale University as a postdoctoral associate and visiting assistant professor of South Asian history (2012–2013). Paik has worked at the University of Cincinnati since 2010.^[1]

She has written two books: Dalit Women's Education in Modern India, which focuses on the "double discrimination" experienced by Dalit women throughout their pursuit of basic rights, and The Vulgarity of Caste: Dalits, Sexuality, and Humanity in Modern India, about the experiences of Dalit women in the Marathi theatre form Tamasha.^[3]

• Dalit Women’s Education in Modern India: Double Discrimination (2014)^[1]
• The Vulgarity of Caste: Dalits, Sexuality, and Humanity in Modern India (2022)^[1]