Associate Professor, Department of English Literature
Co-ordinator, Gender and Sexuality Studies Program
Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA
Assistant Professor, Department of English Literature
Becoming South Asian in America: National Identities, Transnational Localities
How do immigrants from the Indian subcontinent become “South Asian” in the United States? Signifying a shared racial identity, the term South Asian acquires political meaning outside of South Asia. Drawing upon aesthetic texts created by first- and second-generation immigrants, I examine the ways in which a heterogeneous immigrant group consolidates differences of class and gender, national origin and religious faith into universal narratives of experience. As diasporic subjects, South Asians are shaped by ideologies of postcolonial nationhood. Yet as racial minorities, South Asians also embody notions of multicultural citizenship. Through close readings of contemporary literature, film and public events, I argue that South Asians inhabit and produce transnational subjectivities that, in turn, reshapes our understanding of U.S. multiculturalism.
2008 “‘The Largest Gathering of the Global Indian Family’: Neoliberalism, Nationalism, and Diaspora at Pravasi Bharatiya Divas,” Diaspora: A Journal of Transnational Studies 14.1 (2005): 45-74. Co-authored with Latha Varadarajan.
2007 “Queer Desis, Straight Films: Representations of South Asian Americans On and Off-Screen,” The Subcontinental 3.1 (2007): 1-12.
2006 “Beauty Queens: Gender, Ethnicity, and Transnational Modernities at the Miss India USA Pageant,” Positions: East Asia Cultures Critique 14. 3 (2006): 717-747.
“‘My Two Lives’: Diaspora, Immigration, and Globalization in Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies,” Ethnic Nationalisms: Narration, Race and Cultural Politics in Asian Societies from Independence to Globalization, ed. Robbie B.H. Goh. Hong Kong: University of Hong Kong Press, forthcoming 2008.
“Undressing the Diaspora,” South Asian Women in the Diaspora, ed. Nirmal Puwar and Parvathi Raghuram. New York: Berg Press, 2003. 117–136.
“Amitav Ghosh,” South Asian Novelists in English: An A–Z Guide, ed. Jaina Sanga. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2003. 78–82.
“Moments of Identity,” Contours of the Heart: South Asians Map North America, ed. Rajini Srikanth and Sunaina Maira. New York: Asian American Writers Workshop, 1996. 174–187.
Asian Diasporas: Cultures, Identities, Representations, ed. Robbie B.H. Goh and Shawn Wong. Journal of Asian Studies 64.4 (2005): 980–982.
The Most Beautiful Girl in the World: Beauty Pageants and National Identity by Sarah Banet-Weiser. Feminist Review 81 (2005): 132–134.
Imagine Otherwise: On Asian Americanist Critique by Kandice Chuh. Amerasia Journal 30.3 (2004): 105–107.
Constructing Post-colonial India by Sanjay Srivastava. Contemporary South Asia 10.2 (2001): 151–155.
“Destination Culture,” SAMAR: South Asian Magazine for Action and Reflection 14 (2001): 11–14.
“Singing a Revolution: An Encounter with Asian Dub Foundation,” SAMAR 11 (1999): 32–35.
“In Charge of His Own Definitions: A Conversation With Hanif Kureishi,” Trikone 16.3 (2001): 6–8.
WMST 91. Capstone Seminar in Women's Studies
ENGL 117. Literatures of Globalization
ENGL 82. Transnational Feminist Theory
ENGL 76. The World, The Text and The Critic
ENGL 75. South Asian Diasporas: Culture, Politics, Place
ENGL 65. Asian American Literature
ENGL 9D. Nation and Migration
“One Book, One Community: The Namesake,” Watertown Free Public Library, Massachussetts
“The New Miss India: Beauty Pageants in the South Asian Diaspora,” Asian American Studies Program, Department of Ethnic Studies, University of California at Berkeley
“Becoming South Asian in America,” Faculty Lecture Series, Swarthmore College
“‘My Two Lives’: Reading Race, Nationalism, and Globalization in Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies and The Namesake,” National University of Singapore
“Undocumented Lives: Performing Gender and Race in South Asian Film,” Critical Intersections in Asian American Studies, Dartmouth College
Invited Panel Chair, “Translating Cultures, Negotiating Dislocations,” South Asian Literary Association Annual Convention, Philadelphia
Invited Discussant, “Epic Uncertainties: Challenging the Asian American Bildungsroman,” Asian American Studies Colloquium, University of Pennsylvania
“South Asian Solidarity: Organizing Across Socio-Economic Divides,” Yale University
“Miss India U.S.A.: Gender, Ethnicity, and Transnational Modernities,” Department of Comparative Studies, Ohio State University
“Beauty Queens,” MacArthur Foundation Workshop, University of Minnesota–Twin Cities
“South Asia: Histories of the Present,” Department of History and Anthropology, University of Michigan–Ann Arbor
“The Namesake: Transnational Belongings in South Asian America”
American Studies Association Annual Conference, Philadelphia
“I’m Indian, I’m Just Brown”: South Asian Youth and Documentary Film
Association of Asian American Studies Annual Conference, New York
“Bombay Dreams: Race, Violence, and the Logic of Representation on Broadway”
Society for Cinema and Media Studies Annual Conference, London
Multi-Ethnic Literatures of the United States Annual Conference, Chicago (Panel Chair)
“Race, Nation, and the Secular Imagination after 9-11”
Modern Language Association Annual Convention, Philadelphia
“Forging Ties Between Asian American and South Asian Diaspora Studies”
Association of Asian American Studies Annual Conference, Boston
“Transnational South Asia”
University of California at Berkeley, 19th Annual South Asia Conference (Panel Chair and Discussant)
“The Global Indian Family: Governmentality, Modernity, and Formations of Diaspora”
American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, Chicago
“Imagining South Asian America”
Dartmouth College, Institute on the Futures of American Studies
“Queer Visions of Home: Geographies of Sexuality in South Asian Diasporic Film”
Association of Asian American Studies Annual Meeting, San Francisco (Panel Chair)
“Fictions of Immigration: Modernity and Migration in Jasmine and Interpreter of Maladies” University of Wisconsin at Madison, 31st Annual Conference on South Asia (Panel Chair)
“Destination Culture: Engendering ‘South Asia’ at Arts/Activist Festivals”
University of California at Berkeley, 16th Annual South Asia Conference
“Beauty Queens: Staging the Miss India USA Pageant”
University of Birmingham, 3rd International Crossroads in Cultural Studies Conference,
University of Wisconsin at Madison, 28th Annual Conference on South Asia (Panel Chair)
“One-way Ticket Out of This Place: Remembering the Nation in Diasporic Films”
University of Glasgow, Screen Studies Conference
“Dig That Dupatta: Clothing Practices in South Asian Diasporas”
University of Leicester, Workshop on Gender and South Asian Diasporas
Asian Studies Committee
2004–8
Transfer Credit Advisor, Department of English Literature (on leave 2005–6)
2008
"Youre the One We Want: Representing Asian American Sexualities," Q&A with Margaret Cho, comedian. Sponsored by the Cooper Fund.
Theme: "The Home and the World: Global Literatures in English"
“Feminism and Post-colonialism.” Invited guest lecturer for WMST 91 Capstone Class
“Miss India U.S.A.” Invited guest faculty lecture for Department of Sociology and Anthropology
Co-organizer, “A Terrible Beauty is Born.” Performance by Arjun Raina, Dramatist. Sponsored by the Department of English Literature, Department of Theater, and Drama Board
Manuscript Reader for Broadview Press (Canada)
Interviewed by Steve Goldstein, “A worldwide search for the best scholars,” The Philadelphia Inquirer, 13 Nov 2005: A1.
Panel Moderator, “Responsibility to Community,” Live Traditions: Contemporary Issues Performance Festival, Painted Bride Arts Center, Philadelphia
Manuscript Reader for Duke University Press, Positions: East Asia Cultures Critique
Invited Discussant, In Ink: A Celebration of South Asian Writing, Project Impact Literary Festival, Philadelphia
Interviewed by Alisa Giardinelli, “Think Global, Teach Local,” Swarthmore College Bulletin (December 2003): 34–35.
Invited Speaker, Network of Indian Professionals Annual Convention, Philadelphia
Interviewed by Anjali Mody, “Advani put on the defensive,” The Hindu (India), 11 Jan 2003: 1.
Co-curator, Queer Filmistan. First annual queer South Asian film festival in North America, Artist’s Television Access, San Francisco
Japanese: Bilingual speaking, reading, and writing fluency
Association of Asian American Studies (AAAS)
American Studies Association (ASA)
Modern Language Association (MLA)