Abha Sur

Lecturer

Email: asur@mit.edu

Subjects offered Fall 2026

  • Prereq: None
    Units: 3-0-9

    Examines the role of science and medicine in the origins and evolution of the concepts of race, sex, and gender from the 17th century to the present. Focus on how biological, anthropological, and medical concepts intersect with social, cultural, and political ideas about racial, sexual, and gender difference in the US and globally. Approach is historical and comparative across disciplines emphasizing the different modes of explanation and use of evidence in each field.

Subjects taught in recent years

  • HASS-H; CI-H
    Units: 3-0-9

    Provides an introduction to the history of gender, sex, and sexuality in the modern United States, from the end of the 19th century to the present. Surveys historical approaches to the field, emphasizing the changing nature of sexual and gender identities over time. Traces attempts to control, construct, and contain sexual and gender identities. Examines the efforts of those who worked to resist, reject, and reform institutionalized heterosexuality and mainstream configurations of gendered power.
    Staff

  • HASS-H
    same subject as STS.023
    Units: 3-0-9
    T/R 10-11:30am

    Examines the influence of social and cultural determinants (colonialism, nationalism, class, and gender) on modern science and technology. Discusses the relationship of scientific progress to colonial expansions and nationalist aspirations. Explores the nature of scientific institutions within a social, cultural, and political context, and how science and technology have impacted developing societies

Abha Sur is a scientist turned historian of science. She received her Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from Vanderbilt University and post-graduate training in the field of mutli-photon ionization spectroscopy at SUNY, Stony Brook and at Yale University. She has published several articles in chemistry. Her more recent research focuses on the history of modern science in India from a subaltern perspective. Her book Dispersed Radiance: Caste, Gender, and Modern Science in India (New Delhi: Navayana, 2011) examines the confluence of caste, nationalism, and gender in science and unpacks the colonial context in which science was organized. Reviews and information about the book are available at navayana.org. Abha Sur was a fellow at the Bunting Institute (now known as the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies) at Harvard University and at the Dibner Institute for the History of Science and Technology at MIT.