Professor Sunita Sharma is a historian, educator, and gender studies scholar, who most recently held the position of Associate Professor and Head of the Postgraduate Department of History at B.D. College, Patliputra University, Patna, until her superannuation in February 2024. Over the course of an academic career spanning more than three decades, she has made significant contributions to teaching, research, and institution-building in the fields of Indian history, gender studies, and Indo-Islamic culture.

Educated at Patna University, where she completed both her postgraduate studies and doctoral research, Professor Sharma earned her Ph.D. in History for a dissertation titled Women in Mughal India: Aspects of Political, Social and Literary Activities, under the supervision of the late Professor Qeyamuddin Ahmad. Her research laid the foundation for a sustained scholarly engagement with the historical roles of women in early modern South Asia.

Professor Sharma began her teaching career at Patna Women’s College and went on to serve at Jagdam College (Jai Prakash University, Chapra), as well as Patna University, Magadh University, and Nalanda Open University. She has also taught extensively for government initiatives supporting candidates from marginalised communities and worked with the Centre for Study of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy, Patna University.

An accomplished scholar, Professor Sharma is the author of ten books and editor of twelve volumes. She has published 71 articles in research journals and 25 in peer-reviewed journals, in addition to presenting over 140 papers at national and international seminars. Her notable publications include Veil, Sceptre and Quill: Profiles of Eminent Women (16th–18th Centuries), A History of Resisting Marginalisation: Muslim and Dalit Women in Feminist Discourse, Dalit Women: From Exclusion to Integration, and Women Protagonists in the Revolt of 1857: Reclaiming Gender Space. Her work is characterised by a deep engagement with subaltern voices, feminist historiography, and the cultural politics of inclusion.

Her research interests span Gender History across the medieval, modern, and contemporary periods; Indo-Islamic architecture and its syncretic features; and the shifting perspectives in higher education. Forthcoming projects include monographs on Unspoken Lives of Timurid Women and Padmavat: Recasting the Narratives.

Professor Sharma has been closely associated with several academic bodies and editorial boards. She is a life member of the Indian History Congress, Indian Association of Women’s Studies, and Institute of Historical Studies, among others. She has served as Vice President and currently as President of the Centre for Gender Studies, Patna. From 2015 to 2021, she chaired the Internal Complaints Committee of the Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Public Library, under the Ministry of Culture, Government of India.

Her numerous invited lectures, keynote addresses, and roles as a resource person underscore her leadership in academic discourse, especially in the domains of gender justice, inclusive citizenship, and cultural history. Through her scholarship and mentorship, Professor Sharma has made a lasting contribution to the academic and social understanding of India’s pluralistic past and its contemporary resonances.