# Event Details - **Event Name**: Sohini Chattopadhyay - Claiming Manoobai Chand’s Body - **Event Start and End Date**: Wed, 19 Nov, 2025 at 06:00 pm – Wed, 19 Nov, 2025 at 07:30 pm - **Event Description**: The New York History of Science Lecture considers how bodies became objects of scientific value in colonial India.About this EventIn 1912, Annette Benson, a campaigner for medical women's rights in India and the Superintendent of Cama Hospital, Bombay, dissected the body of Manoobai Chand. Chand, a twenty-year-old Muslim woman, had died of dysentery after several months at the hospital. Chand was Muslim, a fact that would typically mean her body would be claimed by a local charity, but the hospital marked her as a "mendicant" with no family, and an "unclaimed body."Benson, however, justified her actions by stating she wanted to uncover the roots of Chand's ailment, invoking "the plea of science," even though she knew Manoobai's body was not genuinely unclaimed. The local charity protested outside the hospital, prompting the Government of Bombay to launch an investigation. This investigation was eventually abandoned, and in 1913, Benson became a successful founding member of the Women's Medical Service in India. This raises a critical question: Where can we situate Manoobai Chand's body within Benson's struggles and efforts for medical women in India?Drawing from the transcripts of this 1912-1913 investigation, this lecture maps the relationship between Benson and Chand. A study of their intertwined lives raises critical questions about the blurry boundaries between value and labor, opening new conversations between labor history and the history of science. The lecture demonstrates how anatomical examination was only possible when state regulations and scientific authority deemed certain bodies valuable. Such value, in turn, was only possible if those bodies were deemed unproductive in life, often based on the denial of labor of those who performed caste and gender based stigmatized and undervalued work. Anatomical practice, then, depended on whose body could perform scientific labor and whose body could become an object of scientific value.Event SpeakerSohini Chattopadhyay, Assistant Professor of History at Union CollegeEvent InformationContact historyofscience@nyu.edu and scienceandsociety@columbia.edu with any questions.This event is part of the New York History of Science Lecture Series.Sponsoring Organizations:Columbia University in the City of New YorkNYU Gallatin School of Individualized StudyThe Graduate Center, City University of New YorkThe New York Academy of MedicineThe New York Academy of SciencesCo-sponsored by the Center for Disability Studies at New York University. - **Event URL**: https://allevents.in/new-york/sohini-chattopadhyay-claiming-manoobai-chand’s-body/100001611610292769 - **Event Categories**: nonprofit, charities, art, fine-arts - **Interested Audience**: - total_interested_count: 0 ## Ticket Details - **Ticket Price Range**: min: 0, max: 0, currency: USD ## Event venue details - **city**: New York - **state**: NY - **country**: United States - **location**: Fayerweather Hall, Room 513 - **lat**: 40.8082408 - **long**: -73.9603477 - **full address**: Fayerweather Hall, Room 513, 1180 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, United States ## Event gallery - **Alt text**: Sohini Chattopadhyay - Claiming Manoobai Chand’s Body - **Image URL**: https://cdn-az.allevents.in/events7/banners/28793e8af5b4ca6b8061192936b0cd78140b0f95d1b21d0b9270f89fceda05ea-rimg-w1200-h450-dcbad8ea-gmir.jpg?v=1757267919 ## FAQs - **Q**: When and where is Sohini Chattopadhyay - Claiming Manoobai Chand’s Body being held? - **A:** Sohini Chattopadhyay - Claiming Manoobai Chand’s Body takes place on Wed, 19 Nov, 2025 at 06:00 pm to Wed, 19 Nov, 2025 at 07:30 pm at Fayerweather Hall, Room 513, 1180 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, United States. - **Q**: Who is organizing Sohini Chattopadhyay - Claiming Manoobai Chand’s Body? - **A:** Sohini Chattopadhyay - Claiming Manoobai Chand’s Body is organized by The Center for Science and Society. ## Structured Data (JSON-LD) ```json [ { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "Event", "name": "Sohini Chattopadhyay - Claiming Manoobai Chand’s Body", "image": "https://cdn-az.allevents.in/events7/banners/28793e8af5b4ca6b8061192936b0cd78140b0f95d1b21d0b9270f89fceda05ea-rimg-w1200-h450-dcbad8ea-gmir.jpg?v=1757267919", "startDate": "2025-11-19", "endDate": "2025-11-19", "url": "https://allevents.in/new-york/sohini-chattopadhyay-claiming-manoobai-chand’s-body/100001611610292769", "location": { "@type": "Place", "name": "Fayerweather Hall, Room 513", "address": { "@type": "PostalAddress", "streetAddress": "1180 Amsterdam Avenue", "postalCode": "10027", "addressLocality": "New York", "addressRegion": "NY", "addressCountry": "US" }, "geo": { "@type": "GeoCoordinates", "latitude": "40.8082408", "longitude": "-73.9603477" } }, "eventAttendanceMode": "https://schema.org/OfflineEventAttendanceMode", "description": "The New York History of Science Lecture considers how bodies became objects of scientific value in colonial India.", "offers": [ { "@type": "AggregateOffer", "availability": "https://schema.org/InStock", "priceCurrency": "USD", "availabilityStarts": "2026-04-07", "availabilityEnds": "2025-11-19", "validFrom": "2026-04-07", "lowPrice": "0.00", "highPrice": "0.00", "price": "0.00", "url": "https://allevents.in/new-york/sohini-chattopadhyay-claiming-manoobai-chand’s-body/100001611610292769" }, { "@type": "Offer", "availability": "https://schema.org/InStock", "priceCurrency": "USD", "availabilityStarts": "2026-04-07", "availabilityEnds": "", "validFrom": "2026-04-07", "url": "https://allevents.in/new-york/sohini-chattopadhyay-claiming-manoobai-chand’s-body/100001611610292769", "price": 0, "name": "Online Attendees" }, { "@type": "Offer", "availability": "https://schema.org/InStock", "priceCurrency": "USD", "availabilityStarts": "2026-04-07", "availabilityEnds": "", "validFrom": "2026-04-07", "url": "https://allevents.in/new-york/sohini-chattopadhyay-claiming-manoobai-chand’s-body/100001611610292769", "price": 0, "name": "In-Person Columbia Attendees" }, { "@type": "Offer", "availability": "https://schema.org/InStock", "priceCurrency": "USD", "availabilityStarts": "2026-04-07", "availabilityEnds": "", "validFrom": "2026-04-07", "url": "https://allevents.in/new-york/sohini-chattopadhyay-claiming-manoobai-chand’s-body/100001611610292769", "price": 0, "name": "In-Person Public Attendees" } ], "organizer": [ { "@type": "Organization", "name": "The Center for Science and Society", "url": "https://allevents.in/org/the-center-for-science-and-society/22833203", "description": "The Center for Science and Society at Columbia Universitybrings together a wide variety of scholars and practitioners in the human, social, and natural sciences from around Columbia’s campus and the New York City metropolitan area to support interdisciplinary research, teaching, and outreach about the roles of science, technology, medicine, and public health in past and present societies. 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