Teaching and Professional Service

Courses

Undergraduate Level

British Literature since 1900 (poetry, fiction, prose; literary movements, genres)

Modern Poetry (British and Anglophone; world poetry, in English and in translation)

The Modern Short Story (global; in English and in translation)

World Literature (poetry, fiction, drama, and prose; various periods, genres, languages)

Modernism and Modernist Movements (poetry, fiction; British, Anglophone)

Lyric Poetry (forms and genres, history, theory; British, Anglophone, global)

Postcolonial Fiction (novels, novellas, short stories; Anglophone, World Literature)

Literary Theory and Criticism (various levels, 1900–present; Anglo-American, European)

Theories of Narrative (1900–present; general; theories of the novel, the short story)

Modern Indian and South Asian Literatures (various genres, languages; 1800–present)

Graduate Level

British Literature since 1900 (including modernism, and poetry, fiction, and prose)

Theory and Interdisciplinary Studies (modern theory across the humanities)

Anglophone Literatures, Colonialism and Postcolonialism

World Literature, Comparative Studies, and Translation Studies

South Asian Studies (languages, literatures, and cultures of India and South Asia)

Advising

Doctoral Dissertations in the Department of English, UW-Madison

Reader, Fall 2018. Lauren Hawley, “Altered States of Consciousness in High Modernism.”

American modernist poets; T.S. Eliot, Mina Loy, William Carlos Williams

Reader, Fall 2012. Sara Elizabeth Phillips, “The Poetics of the Archive: Twentieth and Twenty-first Century American Poems Including History.”

Contemporary American poetry and poetics; experimental genres, the historical poem, the archival poem, women’s literature

Reader, Spring 2012. Mukoma Ngugi, “Chirality and the Politics of Authorized and Unauthorized English in John Clare and Amos Tutuola.”

Eighteenth century studies, romanticism, African and colonial literature

Reader, Fall 2005–Spring 2007. Lucienne Loh, “Beyond English Fields: New Critical Terrains of Empire in Twentieth-century Creative Non-fiction.”

Modern British literature, imperialism and postcolonialism, prose genres

Doctoral Dissertations in the Department of Comparative Literature, UW-Madison

Reader, Fall 2016–Spring 2018. Anwesha Maity, “Imaginary Science and Cultural Signs: Mapping Postcolonial Bangla (Bengali) Science Fiction.”

India; modern Bengali and Indian literatures; comparative studies of science fiction and its genres; modern theory, classical Indian poetics

Reader, Fall 2011–Spring 2013. Reem Hilal, “Tracing a Narrative of Muslim Self after 9/11.”

Contemporary novels in the U.S., Great Britain, and France; Islam, Muslim women novelists; theories of identity, gender, race; literature and politics

Reader, Fall 2008–Spring 2012. Ziad Suidan, “The Poetry of Mahmoud Darwish.”

Arabic poetry and poetics after 1948; contemporary Palestinian poetry

Doctoral Dissertations in Humanities, Social Sciences, and Interdisciplinary Studies, UW-Madison

Reader, Spring 2015–Fall 2017. Katherine Lieder, “Performing Nirbhaya (Fearlessness): Reframing Sexual Violence Discourse in Modern Urban India.” Program in Interdisciplinary Theater Studies.

India; December 2012 Delhi gang-rape case; protest theater and performance, gender and sexuality, contemporary women’s movements

Reader, Spring 2014. Jacob Krch, “Nietzsche’s Account of Human Excellence.” Department of Philosophy.

German; European philosophy, nineteenth century

Reader, Fall 2013–Spring 2014. Carmen McCain, “The Politics of Exposure: Hausa Film and Literature.” Department of African Languages and Literatures.

Nigeria; Hausa language; contemporary popular culture, media studies

Reader, Spring 2005. Christopher Chekuri, “Literary Culture in the Vijayanagara Empire.” Department of History.

India; Telugu literature, sixteenth century

Doctoral Dissertations in the Department of Languages and Cultures of Asia, UW-Madison

Chair, Fall 2012–Summer 2019. Sandeep Kindo, “Recognition, Identity, Justice: Oraon Custom in the Law Courts of Modern India.”

India; the Oraon community of indigenous people; comparative law, critical legal theory, analysis of major court cases

Chair, Fall 2015–Spring 2019. Nkoyo Edoho-Eket, “Imaging the Goddess-woman: Shakti in Contemporary South Asian Visual Culture.”

India and Indian diaspora; religious studies and visual cultures: contemporary Hinduism, digital media, interdisciplinary theory, women’s movements

Chair, Fall 2013–Spring 2019. Ian Atalla, “Messianic Modernism: Adunis’ Vision of Revolutionary Arab Poetics.”

West Asia; Syria and Syrian poetry; major but controversial contemporary Arab poet Adunis; Arabic poetics, modernity, and modernism; comparative history and theory, colonial and postcolonial politics, Middle Eastern political parties, social transformation)

Chair, Fall 2013–Summer 2018. Nalan Erbil. “The Writer and the Nation-state: Language, Aesthetics, Ideology, and Power in Turkish Literature, 1927–2015.”

West Asia; modern and contemporary Turkey; nation, state-ideology, language, literature, film, resistance; fiction, poetry, women writers and film-makers

Chair, Fall 2001–Summer 2005. Sung-ok Hong. “On Subject and Indirect Subject Constructions in Hindi.”

India; modern Hindi language, linguistics

Reader, Summer 2012. Sangeeta Desai, “Contemporary Vaishnava Katha Rituals.”

India; religious studies: contemporary Hinduism

Reader, Spring 2006–Spring 2010. Christian Haskett, “Scripture and Commentary in Theravada Buddhism.”

India and Tibet; religious studies: Buddhism

Reader, Summer 2004. Rajagopala Vakulabharanam, “Self and Society in Transition: A Study of the Modern Autobiographical Tradition in Telugu.”

India; Telugu literature; modern prose, autobiography

Reader, Fall 2001. Frank Morales, “The Epistemology of Jiva Goswamin in the Context of Vaidika Philosophy.”

India; Bengal, Bengali literature; religious studies, philosophy: Hinduism, Vaishnavism, Vedic traditions

Master's Theses in the Department of Languages and Cultures of Asia, UW-Madison

Chair, Fall 2013–Spring 2015. Jordan Turner, “Origins of Tantra in Hinduism and Buddhism.”
Chair, Fall 2008–Spring 2011. Meagan Vail, “Images of Holi in Indian Cinema.”
Chair, Spring 2007–Fall 2010. Ian Atalla, “Pre-Islamic Oral Poetry in Arabic.”
Chair, Fall 2006–Fall 2009. Mike Kruse, “The Kabir Tradition in the Twentieth Century.”
Chair, Fall 2008–Summer 2009. Elizabeth Lhost, “The Colonial Public Sphere in India.”
Chair, Fall 2003–Summer 2004. R. Schuyler Selden. “Women in the Oral Folktales of Banarasi Kayasthas.”
Reader, Spring 2014–Fall 2016. Andrew Bennet, “Devotion to Stupas at Sanchi and Gandhara.”
Reader, Fall 2011–Summer 2012. Nalan Erbil, “Orhan Pamuk and the Contemporary Turkish Novel.”
Reader, Fall 2008–Spring 2009. John Stavrellis, “Dalit Politics and Cultural History.”
Reader, Spring 2007. Tristin Klappauf, “The Kala Bhairava Statue in Kathmandu, Nepal.”
Reader, Spring 2007. Rae Daschille, “Tibetan Buddhist Medical Texts.”
Reader, Spring 2004. Shenghai Lee, “A Study of the Canonical Chinese Translations of the Vajrachhedika.”
Reader, Spring 2004. Sangeeta Desai, “Transformational Techniques in the Shri Satyanarayana Katha.”
Reader, Spring 2004. Amelia Liwe, “Women’s Writing in Indonesia.”

Undergraduate Research Projects, UW-Madison

Supervisor of research paper, Fall 2016. Alison Sharpless, “Birds of a Feather: Relationships through the Memory Writing of Nineteenth-century China’s Zhang Family Siblings.” Department of Languages and Cultures of Asia.
Thesis supervisor, Summer 2013–Spring 2014. Jordynn Peter, “The Children of Budhwar Peth: Adoption among Sex Workers in Pune’s Red-light District." Department of Languages and Cultures of Asia.

Advising at Other Universities

Reader, Fall 2002–Spring 2004. Rashmi K. Rai, “Thresholds of Change: Modernity in the Postcolonial City.” Department of English, Northwestern University, Evanston. Doctoral Dissertation.

India and Indian-English literature; postcolonial theory; Mumbai, urban literary studies

Chair, 1998–2000. Nyla Ali Khan, “Hybridity, Identity, and Migration in Postcolonial Fiction and Criticism.” Department of English, University of Oklahoma. Doctoral Dissertation.

Anglophone literature

Reader, 1998–2001. Ashwani Kumar, “Caste-wars in Bihar.” Department of Political Science, University of Oklahoma. Doctoral Dissertation.

India; contemporary politics; caste, violence in the 1970s and 1980s

Chair, 1993–95. Lyn F. Gattis, “The Ideologies of Victorian School Fiction.” Department of English, University of Oklahoma. Master's Thesis.

Winner, OU Graduate School annual award for best M.A. thesis, Spring 1995

Reader, 1998–2000. Henry Franklin Griffy, “Chaucer’s New Tomb: The House of Fame.” Department of English, University of Oklahoma. Master's Thesis.
Reader, 1994–95. Michael David Geurin, “Letters Never Sent.” Department of English, University of Oklahoma. Master's Thesis.
Reader, 1993–96. R. Scott Lamascus, “From Babel to Pentecost: The Rhetoric of Missions in American, Evangelical Autobiography of the Nineteenth Century.” Department of English, University of Oklahoma. Master's Thesis.
Chair, 1990–91. Bradley Greenberg, “Deleuze’s Theory of the Differend.” Department of Political Science, University of Georgia. Master's Thesis.

Professional Service

Service

Workshops and Seminars

2020–21. Workshop on “Redesigning Modernities: Why Does the Modern World Look So Different in Various Places Around the Globe?” The Pennsylvania

State University, University Strategic Plan, 2016–2025; Office of the Provost, Advancing the Arts and Humanities initiative.

External Workshop Facilitators, Summer 2020 (June 8–12): Aparna Dharwadker and Vinay Dharwadker, University of Wisconsin–Madison.

2018. Seminar on “Shakuntala: Comparison and Critical Revaluation in the 21st Century.” Center for South Asia, University of Wisconsin–Madison.

For faculty, students, and general public; February 23

2016. Seminar on “Emotion in Motion: The Natyashastra, Darwin, and Affect Theory” (PMLA article, 2015). Mellon-Sawyer Seminars, Department of

Gender and Sexuality Studies, Emory University.

For faculty and students across disciplines; attended by 29 graduate students with research projects on theories of emotion and affect; October 27

2005–07. Faculty Coordinator, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Interdisciplinary Workshop in the Humanities on “Cosmopolitan Cultures, Cosmopolitan

Histories,” Center for the Humanities, University of Wisconsin–Madison.

For UW faculty and graduate students, across disciplines

1996. Multilingual seminar on translating Indian poetry, Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi.

For writers, translators, scholars, and general public; December 11–13

1991. National Endowment for the Humanities Faculty Seminar on Indian Literatures, Clark Atlanta University, Atlanta.

Seminar leader, two-week session, July 8–19

1990. National Endowment for the Humanities Faculty Seminar on the Ramayana in India, The Epic Roots of Non-Western Literature, Oregon State

University, Corvallis.

Seminar leader, two-week session, July 16–27

Lectures

2018. Plenary speaker, Central University of English and Foreign Languages, Hyderabad, India.

International conference on “Indian Literature as World Literature: Past, Present, and Future.” January 18–20. Lecture: “India Incorporated in the Canons of World Literature.”

2010. Keynote speaker, University of Kent at Canterbury, U.K. International conference on “The South Asian Short Story.” September 9–11.

Lecture: “Modernism, Realism, and Experimentalism: The Short Story and Social Transformation in South Asia.”

2010. Keynote speaker, Stanford University. International conference on “Nation and Nation-building in South Asia.” April 27–28.

Lecture: “Nations, Modernisms, Anti-Nations: Five Theses on South Asian Arts and Cultures.”

2009. Keynote speaker, O Museu Temporario and Office of the Mayor of Lisbon, Portugal. International conference on “Lisbon: Transcultural Platform for

the 21st Century?” May.

Lecture: “Creativity, Culture, and the Cosmopolitan City.”

2008. Keynote speaker, Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi. National Translation Competition Awards Ceremony. April 7.

Lecture: “Translating the Millennium: Indian Literature in the Global Market.”

2001. Plenary paper, Conference on “Globalizing English: Writing as Translation.” Department of English and Center for South Asian Studies, University of

Virginia. February 2.

Lecture: “Writing in the Postcolony: Hybridity versus Translation.”

1995. Plenary paper, 54th Session of The English Institute, Harvard University, on “Language Machines: Technologies of Literary and Cultural Production.”

August 24–26.

Lecture: “The Fine Print of Poetry in Modern Indian Culture.”

Conference Organization

2007. Principal organizer and coordinator, national conference on “Cosmopolitan Cultures, Cosmopolitan Histories” (Spring), University of Wisconsin–

Madison. Organized for Mellon Workshop, 2005–07.

2002–04. Supervisor, 31st–33rd Annual South Asia Conferences, Center for South Asia, University of Wisconsin–Madison.

1997. Principal organizer, 57th Session of The English Institute, Harvard University, on “Cosmopolitan Geographies.”

Co-organizers: K. Anthony Appiah (Harvard), Karen Newman (Brown). Selected by the Institute’s Board of Supervisors and Trustees.

Committees and Boards

2018–. Member, Nomination Committee for Honorary Fellows, Modern Language Association of America, New York.

2006–07. James Russell Lowell Prize Selection Committee, Modern Language Association of America, New York.

1998. Commissioned report, The Swedish Academy for the Nobel Prize in Literature, Stockholm.

1995–98. Member, Board of Supervisors and Trustees, English Institute, Harvard University.