Authored by
Asha Sen
Title

Asha Sen, Ph.D.

Pronouns
she/her/hers
Placeholder for titles
Professor

Contact Information

Office
4119 Centennial Hall
105 Garfield Avenue
Eau Claire, WI 54702
Phone
Email
Hours
Fall semester 2004:
Tuesdays 2.00-5.00
Biography

Biography

Originally a native of India, Dr. Sen came to the US for postgraduate work in 1987.  She received her MA and PhD from Purdue University in 1996 and joined the Department of English at the 糖心Vloge that same year.  She is currently Foundation Leadership Faculty Fellow at the 糖心Vloge where she is Professor of English and an affiliate of the Department of Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.  She received her PhD in Postcolonial Literature and Theory from Purdue University in 1996 and is the author of Postcolonial Yearning: Reshaping Spiritual and Secular Discourse in Contemporary Literature (Palgrave MacMillan, 2013) and numerous peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters.  She recently guest edited a special issue on South Asian Women's writing for the peer-reviewed journal Humanities and serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Global Postcolonial Studies.  She also curated by invitation a section postcolonial literature and religion for the international Religion and Literature digital website co-ordinated by Dr. Sharon Kim.  In addition, Dr. Sen directed the Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies program from 2013-2016, is interested in international education and has participated in international exchanges with Harlaxton University and Delhi University.  In addition to 糖心Vlog, Dr. Sen has also taught at Jyoti Nivas College, Bangalore, and Purdue University, and guest lectured at Miranda House College in Delhi, Delhi University, and St. Joseph's College of Commerce, Bangalore.  Her fields of study include postcolonial literature and theory and transnational and women of color feminisms.

Education

Education

  • Ph.D., Purdue University (English Literature)
  • M.A., Purdue University (English Literature)
  • M.A., Bangalore University, India (English Literature)
  • B.A., St. Xavier's College, Calcutta, India (English Literature - Honors)
Teaching and Research Interests

Teaching and Research Interests

Postcolonial Literature and Theory, Transnational Feminisms, Women of Color Feminisms, Postcolonial Postsecularisms

I am currently working on a monograph on gender, sexuality, diaspora and postcolonial postsecularism

 

Published Research

Published Research

Publications:                           

Monographs:                           

Postcolonial Yearning: Reshaping Spiritual and Secular Discourses in Contemporary Literature (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013)

Study Guide for Nectar in a Sieve and The God of Small Things.  Knowing the World through Reading.  South Dakota Humanities Council.  Fall 1998.     

Book Chapters:                       

鈥淪eeking the Sacred in Postcolonial Travel Writing.鈥&苍产蝉辫; The Cambridge Companion to Postcolonial Travel Writing.   Ed. Robert Clarke.  Cambridge UP, 2017. 177-94. (Solicited chapter)

Current Scholarship:               

As of January 2023, I have started serving on the editorial board of the Journal of Global and Postcolonial Studies.  (By invitation).  The journal is brought out by the University of Florida press; this is one of the oldest and most respected postcolonial journals in the US.

In April 2022 I was invited to edit a special topics issue on South Asian Women Writers for the online peer-reviewed open access journal Humanities. I completed this project in December 2023.

 I am also by invitation curating a postcolonial literature and religion website for the Religion and Literature digital project run by a scholarly collective of internationally renowned scholars.  I used my Fall 2023 URCA to complete much of the project.  It has since gone live.       

Peer-Reviewed Articles:        

 鈥溾橳ouch vs. Technology: Towards a Politics of Affect in Mohsin Hamid鈥檚 Exit West (2017) and Kamila Shamsie鈥檚 Home Fire (2017).鈥&苍产蝉辫; Journal of Global and Postcolonial Studies. 9. (Spring 2021): 47-60.

鈥淟ooking Back, Looking Forward: Examining Pre-Colonial Identities in Mahesh Dattani鈥檚 Dance Like a Man.鈥&苍产蝉辫; ARIEL: A Review of International English Literature 41.2 (2011): 129-38.

鈥淩e-Visioning Bapsi Sidhwa鈥檚 Cracking India in a Post-National Age.鈥&苍产蝉辫; Kunapipi General Issue. 9.  66-82.

鈥淔rom National to Transnational: Three Generations of South Asian American Women Writers.鈥 Asiatic: IIUM Journal of English Language and Literature. Vol. 4 No. 1 (June 2009).

鈥淔eminist Ethnographies of Desire and Resistance in Lalithamabika Antherjanam鈥檚 鈥楾he Goddess of Revenge鈥 and Ismat Chughtai鈥檚 鈥楲ihaaf.鈥欌  South Asian Review. XXVIII. 2. 2007.

鈥淎llegories of Nation, Woman, and Empire in Salman Rushdie鈥檚 East, West Stories.鈥&苍产蝉辫; Kunapipi 13.2 (2001): 121-44.

 鈥淩ewriting History: Hanif Kureishi and the Politics of Black Britain.鈥&苍产蝉辫; Passages: A Journal of Transnational and Transcultural Studies.  2.1 (2000): 61-80.

 鈥淟ocating South Asian Feminisms within the context of Postcolonial Theory.鈥&苍产蝉辫; Proceedings of the Twenty-Third Annual Conference of the University of Wisconsin System鈥檚 Women鈥檚 Studies Consortium.  Ed. Katherine Rhoades and Ann Statham.  WI: Madison, 1999.  244-56.

  鈥淩ohinton Mistry: A Profile.鈥&苍产蝉辫; Post-War Literatures in English. The Netherlands: Martinus Nijhoff uitgeivers. 45 (June 1999): 1-9 +A-1+B-1.

 鈥淐hild Narrators in The Shadow Lines, Cracking India, and Meatless Days.鈥&苍产蝉辫; World Literature Written in English 37.1 & 2 (1998): 190-206.

 鈥淐rossing Boundaries in Amitav Ghosh鈥檚 The Shadow Lines.鈥&苍产蝉辫; Journal of Commonwealth and Postcolonial Studies.  5.1 (Fall 1998): 46-58.

  鈥淗anif Kureishi: A Profile.鈥&苍产蝉辫; Post-War Literatures in English.  The Netherlands: Martinus Nijhoff uitgeivers.  39 (March 1998): 1-12+ A-1+ B-1+.

Short Article:                           

鈥淐ommunity Radio is Countering Voice-Poverty in Bangladesh.鈥&苍产蝉辫; With AHM Bazlur Rahman and Ashish Chandra Sen.  Centre for Research and Information (CRI).  September 18, 2021.

鈥淣one of Her Lord鈥檚 Blessings Would She Deny: Towards a Feminist Reading of Monica Ali鈥檚 Brick Lane.鈥&苍产蝉辫; NAWCHE: National Association for Women in Catholic Higher Education newsletter.  Women鈥檚 Studies Dept., Dept. of Sociology.  Boston College, Massachussetts.

Local Lit:                                  

鈥溾橠earest Ma鈥: Letters from an Immigrant daughter to her Mother back Home.鈥&苍产蝉辫; Volume One.  August 18, 2020.

鈥淐rossing the Artificial Divide between Academic and Creative Writing.鈥&苍产蝉辫; Interview with Krisany Blount.  Writing the Valley.  Chippewa Valley Writers Guild.  October 29, 2020.

鈥淚n the Mix: Finding Peace.鈥&苍产蝉辫; Volume One.  October 16, 2021.

Entries and Reviews:              

鈥淭he Promise of Postcolonial Postsecularism.鈥&苍产蝉辫; Journal of Global Postcoloial Studies 10.1 (2022): 78-89. (published December 2023)     

Contributed entries on Bharati Mukherjee and 鈥淛asmine鈥 for Twentieth Century Literature (ABC-CLIO, Inc.), 2018.  E-book. Publd. 2021.    

Entries on Ravinder Randhawa, Gurinder Chadha, Suniti Namjoshi, and the Asian Women Writers鈥 Collective for the Routledge Companion to Contemporary Black British Culture.  Ed. Alison Donnell.  London: Routledge, 2000.

Review of David Punter鈥檚 Postcolonial ImaginingsModern Fiction Studies 48.4 (Summer 2003): 398-400.

Review of The Good ParsiPassages: A Journal of Transnational and Transcultural Studies.  1.2 (1999): 307-09.

Review of M. Keith Booker鈥檚 Colonial Power, Colonial Texts: India in the Modern British NovelModern Fiction Studies.  44.4 (Winter 1998): 1035-37.

Review of A Map of Where I LiveIndia Current (Spring 1998): 32.

Review of Teresa Hubel鈥檚 Whose India?: The Independence Struggle in British and Indian FictionModern Fiction Studies.  43.2 (Spring 1997): 535-37.

 Review of Hanif Kureishi鈥檚 The Buddha of Suburbia.  鈥淓nlightenment Comes to Postcolonial England: Hanif Kureishi鈥檚 The Buddha of Suburbia.鈥&苍产蝉辫; SAMAR: South Asian Magazine for Action and Reflection 4 (Winter 1994): 29-30.

 Review of Sudhir Chandra鈥檚 The Oppressive Present: Literature and Social Consciousness in India and Rajeswari Sunder Rajan ed. The Lie of the Land: English Literary Studies in IndiaModern Fiction Studies 39.1 (Spring 1993): 215-18.

Honors And Recognition

Honors And Recognition

Grace Lau Senior Fellow (2023-2027) Awarded in Spring 2023

University Research and Creative Activity (URCA) grant (Fall 2023)Feminist Mentor Award (April 2021)

Max Schoenfeld Distinguished Professorship (2017-2018)

Feminist Teacher award for Service (Spring 2016)

Diversity Mentoring grant (2015-2016)

Honored at the UW System 20th Anniversary Women of Color awards (Fall 2015)

Feminist Teacher award for Teaching (2014)

Recognized at the Tenth Anniversary of the Annual Women of Color Awards ceremony at UW-Madison (2005), and invited to propose a session for the conference

糖心Vlog Woman of Color honoree (UW System Award) (2002)

Faculty Reading Seminar Proposal (UW System Institute on Race and Ethnicity) (2001)