Apala Kundu
- Graduate Student, PhD Literature
Apala Kundu is a Humanities Engage Immersive Dissertation Research Fellow in her 6th year of the PhD program in Literary and Cultural Studies. Presently, she is working on her dissertation tentatively titled "T-read-ing Waters: Navigating Postcolonial Mobilities in Indian Ocean novels." It explores 20th and 21st century postcolonial migration novels from the Indian Ocean region to argue that Indian Ocean studies can offer a useful alternative to dominant models of postcoloniality, models that are terracentric, nation-state oriented, and rely heavily on North-South or East-West power binaries. As part of the HE IDR Fellowship, she intends to conduct site-based research in archives in Mauritius.
Courses Taught:
ENGCMP 0200: Seminar in Composition (Staff syllabus). Fall 2020
ENGCMP 0200: Seminar in Composition: Migration and Identity. Spring 2021
ENGLIT 0365: Imagining Social Justice - on the Move through Literatures of Migration. Fall 2021 & 2022
ENGLIT 0325: The Short Story (in context): Short Stories across the Globe. Summer 2022
GSWS 0100: Introduction to Gender, Sexuality, & Women’s Studies. Spring 2023
Education & Training
- Ph.D. in English. University of Pittsburgh. Matriculated August 2019. GPA: 3.98 [with M.A. certificate in Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies: “When Women Write Men: Reading Scripts of Homosexual Masculinity in Popular Thai Visual Media”]
- M.A. in English. University of Pittsburgh. December 2022. GPA: 3.98
- M.A. in English. Presidency University. June 2017. GPA: 8.05
- B.A. in English. Presidency University. June 2015. GPA: 7.85
Representative Publications
Journal Article: “Re-possessing Her-story: A Reflection on ‘Queer’ Archiving.” Rejoinder, Issue 9, “The Archival is Political,” online publication of the Institute for Research on Women (IRW) at Rutgers University, Spring 2024
Book Chapter: “Through the Looking Glass.” Situating Social Media: Gender, Caste, Protest, Solidarity, ed. by Samata Biswas & Atig Ghosh, Women Unlimited, 2020, pp. 44-62. (with Pragya Paramita)
Peer-reviewed: “War and Women’s Health: The Diseased Body of the Comfort Woman,” Essays and Studies, Special Issue on “Sexuality, Health and Cultural Narratives,” Journal of the Department of English, Jadavpur University, 2017, pp. 65-84. Print. ISSN 09753478. (with Sarbani Mohapatra)
Research Interests
Postcolonialism in the Global South; Indian Ocean studies; Migration; Mobility and Diaspora studies; Asian and South Asian studies; Gender and Sexuality studies; and Pedagogy
