A Reading Circle with Dr. Ishita Dey - food in literature book club

What can sweets tell us about caste, labour, migration, heritage and identity?
In Sweet Excess: Crafting Mishti in Bengal, Dr. Ishita Dey follows the making, selling and eating of mishti across West Bengal and Bangladesh. Drawing on a decade of ethnographic research, she takes us into sweet shops, workshops, homes, fairs and festivals to look closely at the people and systems behind a food that is so deeply woven into everyday life. The book asks us to look beyond sweetness and celebration: who makes our sweets, how is this work shaped by caste and religion, what happens when ideas of food safety and regulation enter traditional craft, and how does a food associated with abundance exist within a region marked by histories of hunger and food insecurity?
For this session we’ll gather as a reading circle, bringing our questions, observations and responses to the book into a shared conversation with Ishita.
About the Author:
Dr Ishita Dey is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Sociology, South Asian University, Delhi, and the author of Sweet Excess: Crafting Mishti in Bengal (Routledge, 2026). Her research explores food, labour, smell, infrastructure and migration, with a particular interest in the social worlds and histories around food. Her work has appeared in several journals including Contributions to Indian Sociology, Gastronomica, Senses and Society, and South Atlantic Quarterly. She has also been involved in several collaborative research projects exploring food and the senses, including work on the smells of Delhi. She is a member of the editorial collective of Gastronomica and the co-editor of Society and Culture in South Asia.
About the Moderator:
Prachi Grover is a culinary consultant and educator and is the founder of “From Words to Wok”; a community for people who to love to read and eat! Her work sits at the intersection of food, literature and culture.
Registration is mandatory as we have limited spots (link in bio)
The session is free & copies of the book are available at the store