Robert IVERMEE
Associate Professor
HISTORY
Laboratory(ies): PACTE
Links
Keywords
- Environment
- Empires
- South Asia
- History of French colonization
- History of British Colonization
Biography
Robert Ivermee is a specialist in British and French colonialism in South Asia. His research explores the ideologies and practices of colonialism, as well as their environmental impacts. He is the author of three monographs: Glorious Failure: The Forgotten History of French Imperialism in India (2025), Hooghly: The Global History of a River (2020), and Secularism, Islam and Education in India, 1830–1910 (2015).
Before joining Sciences Po Grenoble, Robert was an associate professor at the Institut Catholique de Paris, where he directed the Master’s program in English-Speaking World Studies. A graduate of the University of Oxford, SOAS University of London, and the University of Kent, where he completed his PhD in 2013, he has over fifteen years of experience in higher education in the United Kingdom, France, and India. His teaching focuses on colonial history, the history of South Asia, the climate crisis, and the postcolonial Anglophone world.
His current research project examines British attempts to colonize and transform the Sundarbans region in the Ganges Delta during the 19th century. He is a member of the Pacte research group and its Environments team.
Publications
Henry Piddington and the “Law of Storms”: The Amateur Foundations of Modern Meteorological Science in British India
Robert Ivermee
Science and Participation in the English-Speaking World, University of Lille, June 2026, Lille, France
Colonialism, the Environmental Crisis, and Postcolonial Transition: The Case of the Bengal Delta
Robert Ivermee
Postcolonial Cultures: Studies and Essays, 2026, 4, pp. 56–68
“That Unfortunate Speculation”: Colonialism, Capitalism, and the Reclamation of Sagar Island, 1810–1833
Robert Ivermee
Modern Asian Studies, 2026, 59 (4), pp. 1052–1083. 10.1017/S0026749X25101686
Opening Remarks: “The French in India: A Forgotten History”
Robert Ivermee
French Colonial Presence in India: Cultural Imprint and Decoloniality, Christ University, Bangalore, January 2026, Bangalore, India
Liberty, despotism, and transimperial connections: the French and British in Bengal, 1765–85
Robert Ivermee
Transimperial Connections: Field Workers in the French and British Empires (18th–20th Centuries), University of Toulouse – Jean Jaurès, November 2025, Toulouse, France