My early experiences in the United States - as an immigrant, woman of color, and working-class - have shaped both the research I undertook in graduate school and my teaching philosophy and method. My love for languages and literature drew me to the field of Comparative Literature, in which I hold both an M.A. and the Ph.D. While researching and writing about transnationalism in black cinema for my Master’s thesis, I got turned on to postcolonial cultural studies. Postcolonial studies gave me a framework to study historically the circulation of images and other types of representations of the non-western Other in Western cultural forms, particularly, literature, film, and popular culture. I was also impassioned by the responses of filmmakers, writers, and critics from the formerly colonized nation-states, and this led to my Ph.D. dissertation, the focus of which was gender, sexuality and nationalism in India, beginning with the early 20th century through the end of it.
I am drawn to representations of gender, class, caste, sexualities, race, and national identities in literature, film, and popular culture. Film shows a dramatization of history, a glimpse of fantasy – be it romantic, adventure, or political. I have published essays on representations of gender, sexualities, and Indian nationalism in Hindi cinema. My work has been supported by the Faculty Research Grant at University of Redlands, The Fulbright Senior Research Award, the LENS grant at University of Redlands, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
In my spare time, I like to spend quality time with my dogs and cats, cook, discuss current events, read, listen to music, organize clutter, be outdoors, watch films and television, and learn new technologies.
To find out more about my professional life, you can go to either the Research section of this site.