Loreto College, Kolkata

TRINA NILEENA BANERJEE studied English Honours from Loreto College and a Master’s degree in English from the University of Oxford. She has been a freelance journalist since 2001. She was the recipient of the Rajite Saha Memorial Award for Journalism. In 2001 she published her first book of poems Inside a Blue Corridor and in 2004 she was invited to read her poetry at the Turl Street Arts festival at Lincoln College, Oxford.In 2005 her first film Nisshabd was screened at the 7th Ossian Film Festival in New Delhi. Trina played the lead female role and won the Best Actress award. She taught at Jawaharhal Nehru University from 2011 – 2013 and did a Master of Studies from Oxford University as a Felix Scholarship Recipient. She is the author of Performing Silence Women in the Group Theatre Movement in Bengal and co-editor of  Bipanna Samay: Barnabad, Jatiyotabad, Bakswadhinota o Ajker Bharot. She is a member of the following: Editorial Board of Studies in Theatre and Performance (UK), journal published by Taylor and Francis (October 2020 onwards); Editorial Board of Theatre Research International, published by Cambridge University Press (December 2021 onwards); and, Editorial Review Board of Take One, journal of the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute. A jury member for Serendipity Arts Foundation Performance Research Grant (2020) along with dancer-writer Navtej Johar; and jury member for the Theatre and Performance Research Association’s (TAPRA, UK) annual postgraduate essay-writing competition (2020 and 2022), she is currently Assistant Professor in Cultural Studies at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta.

Usha Bubna graduated with English Honours from Loreto College. She taught Economics in this college for over 30 years. She established the Women’s Cell of Loreto College in 1996 with the objective of using education to empower young women from underprivileged backgrounds and helping them to attain economic independence.

RADHIKA CHANDIRAMANI trained as a clinical psychologist at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS). She founded TARSHI in 1996.  She is a recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship for Leadership Development and the Soros Reproductive Health and Rights Fellowship. She has co-edited Sexuality, Gender and Rights: Exploring Theory and Practice in South and Southeast Asia (Sage, 2005).  Radhika is the Executive Director of TARSHI, the South and Southeast Asia Resource Centre on Sexuality, and the co-Director of The Sexuality and Rights Institute in India.)

Jayati Gupta studied at Loreto College, Calcutta from 1953 to 1955 after having completed her schooling at Loreto House, Calcutta. She started writing with Jaya Chaliha in the 1980s and together they have contributed articles on Calcutta related subjects to daily newspapers and magazines.Other publications where she has contributed include Insight City Guide on Calcutta, Calcutta: The Living City Vol 1 & 2 ,The Calcutta Cookbook ,The Weretiger : Stories of the Supernatural and Spooked : Stories of the Supernatural 

Zilka Joseph is the Academic Affairs program manager at the Center for South Asian Studies, University of Michigan, and a poetry instructor for Springfed Arts-Metro Detroit Writers. She was nominated for a Pushcart prize and her poems have appeared in many journals. She has won several prizes including a Hopwood award and the Elsie Choy Lee Scholarship from the Center for Education of Women. She was interviewed on the University of Michigan WBCN Radio’s Living Writers Series. Her first chapbook Lands I Live In was nominated for a PEN America Beyond Margins award, and her new chapbook What Dread was a semi finalist in Finishing Line Press’ New Women’s Voices contest and has been nominated for a Pushcart.

MALASHRI PRASAD appeared for the Civil Services examination in 1975 and was selected for the Indian Audit & Accounts Service. Later, she received a Master’s degree in Public Administration from the George Washington University in Washington, DC.   She was the recipient of the Public Adminstration Departmental award and made a member of the Pi Alpha Alpha Honor Society of USA. During her official career, she has audited civil and revenue departments, public sector undertakings, United Nations organizations like Habitat and UNON in Kenya and has presented an audit report to the World Maritime University in Sweden. She has worked as the Accountant-General for the State of Himachal Pradesh and Principal Accountant-General for Maharashtra. At present, she is posted as Deputy Comptroller and Auditor-General in the office of the Comptroller and Auditor-General of India. Deeply interested in all forms of art and literature, Malashri Prasad is an accomplished performer of Hindustani classical music and has performed in India and abroad.

After graduating with geography Honours from Loreto College, Debra Rodricks joined the Missionaries of Christ Jesus and spent many years in the remote tribal villages of Jharkhand. She has coordinated Balwadis in the Pauta People’s Project in Gurhet village in Hazaribag District, and through non-formal education has accompanied Santhal tribals to struggle for their rights when displaced because of the construction of a thermal plant. She has worked with a faith based NGO of the Jesuits networking on development issues of displacement in coal mining areas and supported Dalit groups (especially women’s self help groups) with capacity building and leadership training. She is currently based in Madrid, Spain as Mother Provincial of her Order.

Ipsita Roy Chakravarti spent her childhood in Canada and the United States where she became interested in Wicca practised at an old Laurentian chalet. She later graduated from Loreto College, Kolkata. Today she is one of the champions of Wicca (The Craft of the Wise) and is the author of several books and the creative director of 2 films.

Amita Dutt is Professor of Dance in the Uday Shankar Chair at the Rabindra Bharati University and has also been the Head of the Department of Dance, and the Dean of the Faculty Council of Undergraduate and Post Graduate Studies in Fine Arts at Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata.

Renowned designer, Anamika Khanna has been instrumental towards the modernization of Indian craft through her modern wear made from Indian textiles. She won the Damania fashion award in 1995 which saw the beginning of her fashion label. In 2006 she was awarded the FICCI Young Woman's Achiever award. She has successfully shown her collections at various Fashion Weeks all over the world and has an exclusive contract with Harrods, London. In 2003 as part of Bridal Asia she was invited to exhibit her bridal collection in Pakistan. In 2007 she was invited to showcase her new international label Ana Mika at the Paris Fashion Week , the first for any Indian designer.