Chhaya Goswami specializes in the maritime history of the west coast of India and the western Indian Ocean. She chiefly researches on trans-regional and trans-oceanic commodity exchange, maritime trading networks, diaspora and community studies, business history, oral history and violence at sea. She has authored two books on the maritime trading linkages of Kachchh titled The Call of the Sea, Kachchhi Traders in Muscat and Zanzibar c.1800-1880 (Orient BlackSwan 2011) and Globalization Before its Time: Gujarati Merchants from Kachchh (Penguin Books 2016). She has also co-edited a volume with professor Edward Alpers- titled Transregional Trade and Traders: Situating Gujarat in the Indian Ocean (Oxford University Press- 2018). The Indian History Congress awarded best paper prizes to two of the research papers. In 2015, Indian History Congress also awarded her first book Pandit Hiralal Gupta best book prize. She was an honorary University Fellow at Exeter University and a post-doctoral fellow with Warwick University. The University College London (UCL), Qatar had awarded her a Senior Visiting Fellowship for 2018-2019. University of Glasgow, had awarded her a visiting research fellowship.

​

Currently, Goswami is Head and Associate Professor for the Centre for Indian Ocean and Transoceanic Studies, Somaiya School of Civilisation,  Somaiya Vidyavihar University Mumbai, and directs a distinct archival digitization project on Mumbai and Delhi archives chapters in collaboration with the American University of Sharjah. Her latest research focuses on Maritime Trade and Violence in the Gulf of Kachchh c.1650-1820.