About
SUMITRA MUKERJI is a multifaceted individual with a wide range of interests and abilities, advanced multidisciplinary education, and commensurate broad professional experience in diverse fields: academia, the publishing industry, theater, program administration, office management, events/conferences planning and organization, and miscellaneous arts related.
She has a B.A. (Hon.), M.A., and M.Phil. in English from Delhi University, India, and did her doctoral studies in the United States – first in English at SUNY Buffalo, then in Performance Studies at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts (all requirements towards the Ph.D. completed with distinction; dissertation on Indian modern theater incomplete).
Sumitra has more than 14 years’ experience as a University and College Lecturer in English & Comparative Literature, as well as Theater Instructor alongside, teaching at various levels (under-graduate, post-graduate, teacher-training) at premier institutions both in India and in the United States. This includes a tenure-track position at the prestigious Central Institute of English & Foreign Languages, in Hyderabad, India, in the late 1980s, and various adjunct faculty positions through the 1990s in major universities in New York, such as at NYU’s School of Continuing & Professional Studies, Liberal Arts Program; Fordham University at Lincoln Center, Theater Department; and Pratt Institute, Higher Education Opportunities Program. At each of these she designed her own courses.
Sumitra also has more than 25 years’ experience working as an Editor, as well as copyeditor, proofreader, reference editor, and content writer/manager – mostly freelance: for academic, scholarly, research and peer review publications; for trade and mass market publications; and for
individual authors (dissertations and theses; creative writing; travel, cooking, lifestyle articles).
Since 1995 to present she has worked for top-ranking journal Behavioral and Brain Sciences published by Cambridge University Press, and from 2000
to date she has been the Chief Copyeditor, style and content manager, and overall editorial and production supervisor for this journal (in ongoing freelance capacity with CUP’s journals dept.).
Sumitra is herself a published creative writer and poet, a published academic author (articles/papers on literature [various subjects] and literary criticism, theater, other performing arts, cultural studies and critical theory, visual arts), and a writer of feature articles for newspapers and magazines.
Sumitra also worked as Administrative-in-charge and Seminar Organizer for the former International Broadcasting Program at New York University from 1994-1997, was executive assistant to IBP’s Director, Arnon Zuckerman, and for 3 years organized, coordinated and conducted the Annual Seminar in International Broadcasting for CEOs from the TV industry worldwide, in association with Variety’s annual Big Picture Conference. She subsequently worked as administrative assistant in the Dean’s Office at Tisch School of the Arts, NYU; she has previous office management experience as well: with a law office in NYC, a computer publication agency in New Delhi, and other temp work while in college.
She has also organized numerous conferences, workshops, and meetings – both curricular and extra-curricular – while teaching at Delhi University colleges, at CIEFL, Hyderabad, and at SUNY Buffalo. She has presented her own papers, served as panelist and commentator, and as moderator, at several conferences. Also served on various committees.
Sumitra was actively involved with theater (performance, directing, and production) since her schooldays till her early-forties. She won Best Actress and Best Direction awards for plays performed at national college festivals; served as the Artistic Director and Producer of theater groups in Delhi and Hyderabad in the ‘80s; and was the invited Shakespeare specialist at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, U.S., and the Visiting Artistic Consultant and Project Director on Indian Theater also at the Guthrie Theater during the early 1990s. She has done miscellaneous dramaturgical, research, design, performance and production work for various theater companies as well as radio stations in New York (e.g., One Dream Theater, WNYC, WBAI) through the 1990s.
Finally, having done painting, drawing, and miscellaneous art work as a hobby most of her life, Sumitra is recently developing her most-cherished métier: as a fine artist.
Hitherto private about her art talent, in late 2013 she joined the venerable Art Students League of New York, where under the guidance of established artists Peter Homitzky, Oldrich Teply, and Jerry Weiss she has found her footing both in landscape painting and in portraiture. In a short period she has accomplished several new works in different mediums (mostly oil) and has appeared in several group exhibitions in New York City, including at the Manhattan Borough President’s Office, at ASL's Phyllis Harriman gallery, and at the law offices of Cheffetz-Lindsey. She is currently working on a series of cityscapes of NYC and of New Delhi in oil.
She recently (in June-July 2016) had a solo exhibition of her paintings under the series "Portraits of the Lower East Side and other NYC cityscapes" plus some other works (live studio figure paintings and sketches) at the Black Cat L.E.S., a cafe-cum-gallery in her neighborhood.
Additionally, Sumitra has exceptional English language proficiency plus working knowledge of Hindi, Bengali, and German; the ability to translate between languages; computer skills and Web Design training; vast cross-cultural, transnational, trans-historical knowledge of many subjects; and has a passion for music and football (soccer).
With her leadership qualities, organizational, linguistic, and professional skills, pleasing personality and flexible, adaptable nature, Sumitra will be an asset to any organization.