Shalini Puri
Director of Literature |
Associate Professor of English
412-624-2824
spuri@pitt.edu
CL 509-E
Shalini Puri works on postcolonial theory and cultural studies of the global south with an emphasis on the Caribbean. She is currently working on two books: one on the cultural memory of the Grenadian Revolution and its legacies for egalitarian politics in the region, and a second collaborative project to theorize the role of fieldwork in the humanities. Her award-winning book The Caribbean Postcolonial: Social Equality, Post-Nationalism, and Cultural Hybridity explores the relations amongst nationalisms, feminisms, and various theories and histories of cultural hybridity. She continues to be interested in researching the cultural practices, conflicts, and solidarities which have arisen out of the overlapping diasporas set in motion by slavery and indentureship.
In April 2009, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution and the 30th anniversary of the Grenadian Revolution, she organized a colloquium entitled “Remembering the Future:
The Legacies of Radical Politics in the Caribbean” to critically assess the limits and futures of radical politics in the region. Details may be found at www.ucis.pitt.edu/clas/rememberingthefuture/index.html
In 2005, she convened an international conference entitled "Comparative Postcolonialities: Aesthetics, History, Locality" held at the University of Pittsburgh.
Research and Publications: Puri's book The Caribbean Postcolonial: Social Equality, Post/Nationalism, and Cultural Hybridity (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004) won the 2005 Gordon K. and Sybil Lewis prize for the best book on the Caribbean in the foregoing three-year period. She has also edited an anthology entitled Marginal Migrations: The Circulation of Cultures within the Caribbean (Macmillan, 2003). Her work has appeared in Cultural Critique, Small Axe, Journal of Latin American Anthropology, ARIEL, and the anthologies Caribbean Romances: The Politics of Regional Representation (edited by Belinda Edmondson) and Matikor: The Politics of Identity for Indo-Caribbean Women (edited by Rosanne Kanhai).
Teaching:
Graduate Courses
- Seminar: Global Literature
- Seminar: Literature and Revolution
- Seminar: Global South
- Seminar: Postcolonial Globality
- Seminar: Postcolonial Discourse and Cultural Critique
- Seminar: Caribbean Literature
- Seminar: Diaspora and Trans/National Identities
- MA Core Course: Practices and Texts
Undergraduate Courses
- Senior Seminar
- Junior Seminar
- World Literature in English
- The Modernist Tradition
- Literature of the Americas
- Literature and Migration
- Introduction to Critical Reading
- Freshman Composition
- Honors Theses
