AT A GLANCE
Anwesha Das, PhD
Area of Practice: Author, Researcher, Academic.
OVERVIEW
As a scholar of race and African studies, Dr. Anwesha Das is engaged with interdisciplinary research in the fields of literature, history, decoloniality, and intersectionality. She writes about critical studies on race, African literature, political theory, and migration studies. As an academic researcher, she works with the Head of the PhD program to build a scholarly and practice research-based space for research scholars, colleagues, visiting professors and practitioners. Being a part of the School of Advanced Studies and Practice, her courses focus on postcolonial narratives of resistance, migration and displacement, comparative analysis of historical contexts, and creative non-fiction. She is internationally published in the fields of African Studies, Critical Race Studies and Migration Studies.
EDUCATION
PhD English Literature, March 2014, The English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad, India.
Master of Arts in English Literature, September 2009, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, First Class, Rank-VI.
Bachelor of Arts in English (Honors), July 2007, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, First Class, Rank-IV.
WORK EXPERIENCE
Faculty – June 2016 to present (Head of Studies of General Studies, 2020-2023)
Srishti Manipal Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Bangalore, India
Assistant Professor – February 2016 to May 2016
Techno India College, Kolkata, India
Teacher – February 2015 to January 2016
GEMS Akademia International Residential School, Kolkata, India
Assistant Professor – October 2013 to January 2015
VIT University, Chennai, India
Lecturer – January 2010 to June 2010
DCH College, West Bengal, India
INTEREST AREAS
African literature, critical race theory, migration, literary studies, literary theory, political thought, decoloniality, intersectionality, resistance writings.
These research interest areas have culminated in conference presentations listed here:
International Conferences/Workshops
2024. “Writing to Change the World”. The Op-ed Project Workshop, USA. (Full scholarship awarded)
2023. “The Middle Passage and West African Literature,” The Migration Conference, University of Hamburg, Germany.
2017. “Unarchived Histories of the Biafra,” (His)tory, Her-story and ‘Other’ Narratives: Revisions and Re-interpretations in Storytelling, Reva University, Bangalore, India.
2013. “Re-telling tales, Re-creating histories: Stories from Africa,” Patterns of Storytelling: Traditions, Innovations, Visions and Revisions, MELUS/MELOW Organization at Punjab University, India.
2012. “Egbe bere! Ugo bere . . .,” UwaNdi-Igbo: The Place of Igbo in a Globalized World, Igbo Studies Association, Howard University, Washington D.C.
2012. “‘A human is human because of other humans’: Need for Co-existence,” Changing Worlds: Reviewing and Reinventing Literature and Culture, Catholicate College, Kerala, India.
National Conferences
2013. “Writing the Un-archived,” Un-archived Histories, Workshop by Dr. Gyanendra Pandey (Emory University, USA), at EFL University, Hyderabad, India.
2012. “When body ‘speaks,’” Contemporary Ways and Voices of Resistance/Resilience, The English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad, India.
2011. “The Voice of the ‘lions,’” New Research in English Studies: A Young Researchers’ Seminar, The English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad, India.
CURRENT PRACTICE AT SRISHTI
As an academic researcher, I work with the Dean of the PhD program to build a scholarly and practice research-based space for research scholars, colleagues, visiting professors and practitioners. Currently, I’m guiding two research scholars in the areas of media studies, political cartoons, regional poetry of Uttarakhand and the politics of language. I teach courses in the Creative Writing program, Foundation studies, and Doctoral studies program.
TEACHING PORTFOLIO
Doctoral courses offered: Migration and displacement, Research proposal writing.
Creative Writing studios/workshops offered: Un-teach me language, Changing narratives of West Africa, Creative non-fiction, Literature and aesthetics, Writing against the grain, Forms of fiction, Transmedia storytelling, Utopias/Dystopias, Critical writing through creative reading, Storytelling traditions.
Projects: Weird Fictions (live project at Cubbon Park Metro Station, 2017), Performing narratives of resistance, Care/and in smart cities (PGDP project).
CREATIVE PRACTICE & OUTREACH
Relevant Publications:
Book
2022. “Postcolonial Identities and West African Literature”. UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Book Chapters
2022. “Narrativizing History: Chinua Achebe and the Politics of Interpretation.” Chinua Achebe and the Igbo World: Between Fiction, Fact and Historical Representation. Eds. Chima J. Korieh and Ijeoma Nwajiaku. USA: Rowman and Littlefield.
2021. “The Inseparable Ties with the Past: Indirect Colonial Rule in Nigeria and the Biafra War.”New Perspectives on the Nigeria-Biafra War:No Victor, No Vanquished. Ed. Chima J.Korieh. Maryland: Lexington Books.
2016. “Being and Becoming: Rethinking Moments of Encounter.” Being and Becoming: Gender, Culture and identity in Sub-Saharan Africa. Ed. Chinyere Ukpokolo. Cameroon: Spears Media Press.
Peer-reviewed International Journal Publications
2020. “The Literary Artist and the African Experience: Reading Madubuike.” Nigerian Studies Review. New Jersey: Goldline and Jacobs Publishing.
2014. “A Rendezvous with T. Obinkaram Echewa: An Interview.” Research in African Literatures, 45.1. Indiana: Indiana University Press.
2014. Literature as “Social Engagement.” Research Scholar: An International Refereed Journal of Literary Explorations, 2.4. e-journal.
2013. “Egbe bere! Ugo bere.” Igbo Studies Review, 1.1. New Jersey: Goldline and Jacobs Publishing.
2012. “When Body ‘Speaks’: Redefining Violence.” Language in India, 12.10. Bloomington, USA.
2012. “The Lions Produce their own Historian.” Subaltern Speak: An International Journal of Postcolonial Studies, 1.2. Pune: Barloni Books.
Forthcoming Publications
2024. Book Review. “Performing Memories and Weaving Archives”, by Sayan Dey, London and New York: Anthem Press, 2024. In International Journal of Critical Diversity Studies. Pluto Journals, Wits Centre for Critical Diversity Studies, South Africa.
2024. “Analogies of Slavery in West African Literature.” Journal of African Languages and Literary Studies. London and Abuja: Adonis and Abbey Publishers Ltd.