Aashish Velkar

As a historian of economic life, I am interested in economic institutions, political economy, and the cultural foundations of economic practices.

My current project explores the history of the official Cost of Living measurements in Britain during the nineteenth and twentieth century. Expanding on my History of Political Economy essay, I am presently working on a monograph length project provisionally titled The Rhetoric of Numbers.

A recent project has examined the discursive practices that shaped colonial economic spaces and economic nationalism in India. This research was published as essays in Past and Present, The Historical Journal and Research in the History of Economic Thought and Methodology.

My ongoing and long-term research project, Markets and Measurements, investigates the social organisation of measurement standards for commodities and their application to economic organisation, governance, and market institutions. This research was first published as a monograph, Markets and Measurements in Nineteenth Century Britain (CUP 2012). I have developed this project further via essays in international journals such as Enterprise & Society, Business History, Journal of Modern History, Past and Present and Historie & Mesure.

Within the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures, I have served as Director of Teaching, Learning, and Student Experience (2020-22), Associate Director for Assessments (2019-21), and in various T&L roles for the Department of History.

I came to Manchester in 2012, having completed my doctoral training at the London School of Economics in 2009. Originally from India (Mumbai and Pune), I have made the UK my home since 2004. 

When not at my desk, I'm either outdoors with my camera or indoors on a yoga mat - highly weather dependent! See here to view some of the things that my camera has seen.   

Economic History, Business History, History of Modern Britian, History of Modern India