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The Ayah and Amah International Research Network

Dr Shalini Grover has spearheaded a novel collaborative project with interdisciplinary scholars from the UK, Australia, India and United States.

Shalini Grover (main convenor), Arne Sjögren and Aisha Shukat-Khawaja (co-convenors) lead this network.

The Ayahs and Amahs International Research Network researches the historical lives of South Asian ‘ayahs’ and Chinese ‘amahs’. Ayahs and amahs were domestic workers employed as child carers, nannies and wet nurses in private households in India, China and Southeast Asia during the British colonial period. Significant numbers of these women travelled with their employer families to Australia, Britain and Europe. Some spent time at the Ayahs’ Homes in Aldgate and Hackney, London awaiting return journeys to Asia. Our research network is seeking to understand the practices and mobilities of these female caregivers across disparate time-zones and destinations.

Photograph of the Ayahs' Home in Hackney, 1904
Photograph of the interior of the Ayahs' Home in Hackney, London 1904.

We are also interested in the experiences of contemporary domestic workers engaged in care-work for children, older people, and disabled people in private homes. Like their predecessors, the domestic workers of today are extraordinarily mobile, travelling within a country and transnationally for work. The intimate labour of marginalized, poor and minority women who for over centuries have provided essential services pertaining to nurturing and caring remains significantly undocumented in non-western contexts. Our network aims to respectfully address the many omissions.

We run a regular seminar series and engage in collaborative publications and grant applications. The project is also engaging with the wider community and using social media. Three of our members hold a current Australian Research Council Discovery Grant titled ‘Ayahs and Amahs: Transcolonial Servants in Australia and Britain, 1780 to 1945.’ The founder of the network is Niti Acharya (Hackney Museum Manager and PhD student at the University of Lincoln and British Museum). Ayah studies in the UK were first inspired by Rozina Visram.