Office: Keezell 411

Fall 2023 Office Hours:
T/TH 11:00am - 12:00pm

Professor of English and World Literature
Coordinator, World Literature Minor

Teaching and Research Interests: 
World Literature, South Asian Literature and Film, Colonial and Postcolonial Literatures, Postcolonial Theory, Women's Literature, Feminist Theory and Gender Studies, Literature of the Partition of India 

Education:
Ph.D., South Asian Studies, University of Chicago
M.A., South Asian Studies, University of Chicago
M.A., Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis
M.A., Comparative Literature, Jadavpur University, Calcutta, India. First Class, First in University
B.A., Comparative Literature, Jadavpur University, Calcutta, India. First Class Honors, First in University

Selected Awards: 
Madison Scholar Award, James Madison University
Provost Award for Excellence in International Education, James Madison University
Edna T. Shaeffer Humanist Award, James Madison University
Faculty Leave, James Madison University (Competitively awarded research sabbatical)
National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship-American Institute of Indian Studies Senior Fellowship
Feminist Scholarship Award, Women’s Studies Program, James Madison University 
Summer Research Grant, College of Arts and Letters, James Madison University
International Development Grant, James Madison University
Faculty Research and Travel Grant, Cornell University
International Doctoral Fellowship, American Association of University Women
Percy Buchanan Graduate Prize for the best graduate research paper on South Asia, Midwest Association of Asian Affairs Essay Competition
Dissertation Research Fellowship, University of Chicago
Ruth Murray Memorial Graduate Prize for the best essay in the area of women’s studies, feminist criticism or gender studies, Center for Gender Studies, University of Chicago
Florence James Adams Prize, University of Chicago
University of Chicago Fellowship, University of Chicago
Residential Fellowship, University of Chicago
MacArthur Fellowship, University of Minnesota
National Scholarship, Ministry of Human Resources Development, Government of India
Pratibhamoyee Medal awarded to “the best all-round girl-graduate of the year,” Jadavpur University
Hirendranath Dutta Memorial Gold Medal for modern Bengali Literature, Jadavpur University
B.C. Basu Memorial Prize for excellence in Comparative Literature, Jadavpur University
Nripendra C. Bandyopadhyay Memorial Prize for excellence in Comparative Literature, Jadavpur University 
University Medals: B.A. and M.A., Comparative Literature, Jadavpur University

Selected Publications: 

Books

    .   


Blood. A translation of Sunil Gangopadhyay’s novel Rakta. New Delhi, India: Juggernaut, 2020.    

Literature, Gender, and the Trauma of the Partition: The Paradox of Independence. Routledge Research on Gender in Asia Series. London and New York: Routledge, March 2017

The Indian Partition in Literature and Films: History, Politics, Aesthetics. Co-edited with Rini B. Mehta. Routledge Contemporary South Asia Series. London and New York: Routledge, 2015

Unfinished Histories: Gendered Violence and National Identity in Women’s Writings. University of Chicago Libraries. Also, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor: University Microfilms International, 2004     

Refereed Journal Articles and Chapters in Books

“A Mother in a War: Jahanara Imam’s Memoir Ekattorer Dinguli” in Muslim Women’s Writing from across South and Southeast Asia. Feroza Jussawalla and Doaa Omran (Eds.). New York and Abingdon, Oxon.: Routledge, 2022. 125-38

“Borders and Bodies: Women, Violence, and Martyrdom in Shauna Singh Baldwin’s Partition Fiction.” Revista Canaria de Estudios Ingleses 76, Special issue on the Partition (essay invited by Dr. Juan Cruz for the special issue), 2018. 137-48

“Futuristic Technologies and Purdah in the Feminist Utopia: Rokeya S. Hossain’s ‘Sultana’s Dream.’” Feminist Review, Special issue on Dystopias and Utopias. 2017 

“Difficult Choices: Work, Family, and Displaced Women in Partition Writings” in Revisiting India’s Partition: New Essays on Memory, Culture, Politics. Amritjit Singh, Nalini Iyer, and Rahul Gairola (Eds). Lanham, MD: Lexington Books (Rowman and Littlefield), 2016. 91-105

Introduction to TheIndian Partition in Literature and Films: History, Politics, Aesthetics. 1-7

“Quarantined: Women and the Partition” in The Indian Partition in Literature and Films: History, Politics, Aesthetics. 11-35

“Masculinity in Crisis: Nasreen’s Lajja and the Minority Man in Postcolonial South Asia.” Social Text 108 (29:3), 2011. 31-49

“to be pure or not to be: Gandhi, women, and the Partition of India.” Feminist Review 94, 2010. 38-54

“The Diminished Man: Partition and ‘Transcendental Homelessness’” in Partitioned Lives: Narratives of Home, Displacement and Re-settlement. Anjali Gera Roy and Nandi Bhatia (Eds.). Pearson Longman, India, 2008. 50-64

“Divided Homelands, Hostile Homes: Partition, Women and Homelessness.” Journal of Commonwealth Literature 40:2, 2005. 141-54

—REPRINTED in Interpreting Homes in South Asian Literature. Malashri Lal and Sukrita Paul Kumar (Eds.). Pearson Longman, India, 2007. 3-15

“Jyotirmoyee Devi: writing history, making citizens.” Indian Journal of Gender Studies 12:1, 2005. 1-39

“Quarantined: Women and the Partition.” Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East 24:1, Special issue on Sex, Gender and Family Structure, 2004. 35-50

“Disenfranchised Bodies.” Genders 38, 2003. <http://www.genders.org/g38/g38_leonard.html>

“The Nationalist Construction of Femininity: Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s Srikanta.” Jadavpur Journal of Comparative Literature 39, 2002. 131-54

Reference Work Entries

“Bangladesh Secession 1971.” Cultural Sociology of the Middle East, Asia, and Africa Vol. 4. Edward Ramsamy et al. (Eds.). London: Sage, 2012

“Jibanananda Das.” Companion to World Poetry, 1900 to the Present. Victoria Arana (Ed.). New York: Facts on File, 2007

“Jibanananda Das’‘Banalata Sen’.” Companion to World Poetry, 1900 to the Present. Victoria Arana (Ed.). New York: Facts on File, 2007

Editorial Board Membership

• Postcolonial Interventions: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Postcolonial Studies, 2016-Present
• Genders, 2008-2016