Ambika Natarajan

Biography

Dr. Ambika Natarajan is a Visiting Faculty at the University of Mumbai-Department of Atomic Energy, Centre for Excellence in Basic Sciences, Mumbai, India. She specializes in the history of Habsburg Central Europe. Her research focuses on how working-class women altered the discourse on labor and migration in the Habsburg Empire. She also studies empires and imperial states more broadly especially looking at the linkages between sexuality, biomedical science, and female work in the German-speaking lands. She has a PhD in the History of Science from Oregon State University, USA, graduate degrees in English and Biotechnology, and diplomas in German, French, and Creative Writing from reputed universities and institutions in India. She has experience teaching a variety of courses internationally including Bio-statistics, the History and Philosophy of Science, Science and Religion, Russian History, History of American Religions, Ethics in Science, Scientific Writing, and Communication Skills with World Literature. Her PhD dissertation won the 2022 Best Dissertation Prize from the Center for Austrian Studies, University of Minnesota, USA. Her book Servants of Culture is the 2023 Waterloo Centre for German Studies Book Prize Finalist. Her 2024 article in the Journal of Austrian Studies “Evolution of Servant Laws in the Habsburg Empire,” is the winner of the 2025 Max Kade Prize.