Education

Ph.D., Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, India

M.A., University of Delhi, India

B.A., University of Delhi, India

Research Interests

Major interests include 19^th, 20^th and 21^st century African American Literature and Theory, American Multiethnic Literature, World Literature, Post-Colonial Studies, Writing for the Internet, 20^th and 21^st Century American Drama and Fiction.

Books

“Persistent Gender-based Social and Economic Inequalities in India,” Inequality and Governance in an Uncertain World: Perspectives on Democratic and Autocratic Governments, eds. Rekha Datta and Saliba Sarsar, Lexington Books, July 2023.   

Scholarly Articles

“The Queen Mothers of Ghana: Maternal Activists for the 21^st Century,” Journal of the Motherhood Initiative, vol. 12, no. 2, 2021, Issue: Maternal Activisms, 85-97, 2021.

Review:  Sarbani Sen Vengadasalam. (2019). New Postcolonial Dialectics: An Intercultural Comparison of Indian and Nigerian English Plays.  Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Journal of Critical Studies in Language and Literature, 1(2), 48-51, 2019.

Biography Writer for EBSCO Research Starters Series (Ken Adachi; Iris Burgoyne; Gladys Taylor; Elizabeth Knox; Dan Taulapapa McMullin; Albert Wendt; Alan Duff; Tim Dolin; Steve Toltz; Steven Carroll; and Niall Griffiths), February-March 2017.

“Race Riots, 1900-1910,” Encyclopedia of Race and Racism, John H. Moore, Editor-in-Chief, Macmillan, 2008.

“Anna Julia Cooper, ” Encyclopedia of African American History: 1896—Present, Ed. Paul Finkelman, Oxford University Press, 2008

“Fisk University,” Encyclopedia of African American History: 1896—Present, Ed. Paul Finkelman, Oxford University Press, 2008

“Florida A&M University,” Encyclopedia of African American History: 1896—Present, Ed. Paul Finkelman, Oxford University Press, 2008

“The Tuskegee Airmen,” Encyclopedia of African American History: 1896—Present, Ed. Paul Finkelman, Oxford University Press, 2008

“African American Women in the First World War,” Encyclopedia of African American History: 1896—Present, Ed. Paul Finkelman, Oxford University Press, 2008.

“The Devil’s Alternative,” Encyclopedia of Popular Fiction, Ed. Geoff Hamilton, Facts on File, 2007.

Research “Mathias Storch” (Greenland), The Compendium of 20th Century World Novelists and Novels, Ed. Michael D. Sollars, 2006.

Review of A Critical Stage: The Role of Secular Alternative Theatre in Pakistan by Fawzia Afzal-Khan, South Asian Review Winter 2005.

“The Structure of Anita Desai’s Fasting, Feasting,” Contemporary South Asian Fiction, ed. Jasbir Jain, Jaipur, India, 2002.

Presentations/Invited Talks

“The Travails of Motherhood in Jessamine Chan’s The School For Good Mothers,” Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association Annual Conference, San Antonio, TX, June 5-8, 2023.

“Hannaham’s Experiment with Reality,” accepted for College English Association’s Conference: CEA 2020, Hilton Head Island, SC, March 26-28, 2020 (*conference cancelled due to Coronavirus pandemic). Accepted for CEA Conference in Birmingham, AL, 2022.

“Hannaham’s Delicious Foods: Experiments with Feeding America,” 32^nd Annual American Literature Association Conference, Westin Copley Place, Boston, MA, July 7-11, 2021.

“Experimenting with (Sur)reality: Hannaham’s Delicious Foods,” Popular Culture Association, Virtual Conference, Boston, June 2-5, 2021.

“Quiet Resistances in Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus,” Panel Chair and Presenter, 46^th Meeting of the African Literature Association, Virtual Conference, May 26-29, 2021.

“The Displaced Community of Isle de Jean Charles, Louisiana,” Institute of Global Understanding Biennial Symposium 2021: Human Rights and the Environment, Monmouth University, March 25-27, 2021.

“Wounded Bodies, Wounded Souls: Morrison’s Home,” Panel Chair and Presenter, 41^st Southwest Popular/American Culture Association, Virtual Conference, February 23, 2021.

“Radical Mothering in Toni Morrison,” 2^nd Toni Morrison Day Virtual Conference, Monmouth University, West Long Branch, NJ, February 18, 2021.

“Quiet Rebellions: Civilian Protests in Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus,” 46^th Annual Conference of the African Literature Association, Washington DC, April 2020 (Conference cancelled due to Coronavirus pandemic).

“Toni Morrison in Context,” Annual Event: Toni Morrison Day, Monmouth University, West Long Branch, NJ, February 18, 2020 February 18, 2020.

“Queen Mothers of Ghana in the New Media,” 45^th Annual Conference of the African Literature Association, 2019, Columbus, Ohio, May 15-18, 2019.

“Examining the Evolution of the Black Panther Series,” 42^nd Annual New Jersey College English Association Conference, Seton Hall University, South Orange, NJ, March 30, 2019.

“Re-visioning the African American Experience in Beatty’s The Sellout,” accepted for presentation at 40^th Annual Southwest Popular/American Culture Association Conference, Albuquerque, NM, February 20-23, 2019.

“Treading Water: Helon Habila’s Oil on Water,” (*Panel Chair and Presenter), The Environments of African Literature, African Literature Association’s 44^th meeting, Wardman Park, Washington D.C., May 23-26, 2018.

“Examining Divakaruni’s dynamic women in Arranged Marriage, The Unknown Errors of Our Lives and Oleander Girl,” accepted for publication in Feminism and Diaspora: Critical Perspectives on Chitra Divakaruni, edited by Prof. Amritjit Singh and Dr. Samina “21^st Century USA through J. P. Clark’s Vision,” The Environments of African Literature, African Literature Association’s 44^th meeting, Wardman Park, Washington D.C., May 23-26, 2018.

“Aravind Adiga’s White Tiger and the New Indian Liberal Economy,” New Jersey College English Association, Seton Hall University, South Orange, NJ, March 24, 2018.

“Globalizing J.P. Clark’s Song of a Goat,”  41^st Conference of the African Literature Association, University of Bayreuth, Bayreuth, Germany, “The Writing of Harriet A. Jacobs’ Autobiography,” New Jersey College English Association, Seton Hall University, South Orange, NJ, April 1, 2017.

“My Experiment with Advanced Technology in the General Education Classroom,” 36^th Annual Spring Conference, New Jersey College English Association, Jubilee Hall, Seton Hall University, South Orange, NJ, March 9, 2013“Old Wine in New Bottles—reworking Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice,” New Jersey College English Association, Seton Hall University, South Orange, NJ, April 16, 2016.

Forthcoming

Review: Sarbani Sen Vengadasalam. (2020). Teaching Business, Technical & Academic Writing Online and Onsite: A Writing Pedagogy Sourcebook, Cambridge Scholars Publishing. (in process).

Professional Associations

African Literature Association

College English Association

Popular Culture Association

Southwest Popular/American Culture Association

Awards

Fulbright Fellowship, 1998-1999, English and African American Studies, Yale University

Junior Research Fellowship, July 1993-July 1996, University Grants Commission, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi