Pushpa Parekh, Ph.D.

Biography

Pushpa Parekh is in the Literature, Media and Writing Department.

Awards
2011 Adviser, Spelman Alpha Lambda Delta Chapter, Delta Award at Silver-level,awarded by National Council of Alpha Lambda Delta Honor Society for First-Year College Students
2011 Service Learning Certificate of Recognition, Spelman College
2010 Recognition for Twenty Years of Service, Spelman College
2010 Certificate of Participation, International Journal Of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University
2009 Outstanding Honors Director Award, National Association of African
American Honors Program (NAAAHP) Conference, November 2009
1996 Presidential Award for Scholarly Achievement, Spelman College

Professional Leadership
2010-present National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA) Speakers Bureau
2010-present Advisory Board member, Research and Criticism, journal of the Department of English, Benaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India
2005-present Journal Editorial Board member, Journal of Commonwealth and Postcolonial Studies
2005- present Conference Program Coordinating Committee, Commonwealth and Postcolonial Studies Conference, Savannah, GA.
2005-present Journal Editorial Board member, Journal of Commonwealth and Postcolonial Studies
2000-present: Manuscript Reviewer for Journal of Commonwealth and Postcolonial Studies (published by Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, Georgia)
2001-12 Director of Honors Program, Spelman College
2003-8 Invited Advisory board member of Wagadu, Journal of Transnational Women's and Gender Studies), at NYU, Cortland, NY.

Pushpa Parekh CV

Education

• Ph.D., Louisiana State University
• M.Phil., B.A., Panjab University
• M.A., University of Madras

Courses Taught

• Eng 433 "Postcolonial Theory and Women’s Literature"
• Eng 424: "New U.S. Immigrant Women's Literature"
• Eng 418: “Contemporary African Literature”
• Eng 327: "Romantic and Victorian Literature"
• Eng 318: "Victorian and Modern British Literature,"
• Eng 314: Representation of Women in Literature
• Eng 280: Introduction to Literary Studies
• Eng 216: "Images of Women in Non-Western Literature"
• Eng 211, 212: "World Literature"
• Eng 103, 193: "First Year Composition" and "Honors English"
• ADW 111, 112: "African Diaspora and the World"

Research Interests

Postcolonial, Immigrant and Diaspora Literatures (African and South Asian focus), British (19th and 20th Centuries), Cultural and Disability Studies, Non-Western Literature, Women's Literature, Interdisciplinary Studies

Select Publications

Books

Memory Braids and Sari Texts: Weaving Migration Journeys. Archway Publishing, 2023. Author

Intersecting Gender and Disability Perspectives in Rethinking Postcolonial Identities. Philadelphia, PA: Xlibris, 2008. Editor

Postcolonial African Writers: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1998. Co-Editor

Response to Failure: Poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins, Francis Thompson, Lionel Johnson, and Dylan Thomas. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 1998. Author
Journal Special Volume Editor

“Intersecting Gender and Disability Perspectives in Rethinking Postcolonial Identities”

Wagadu, Journal of Transnational Women's and Gender Studies. SUNY, Cortland, volume 4, Summer 2007. Special Volume Editor.

Published Articles, Chapters, Entries and Book Reviews

“Gender, Disability and the Postcolonial Nexus,” Wagadu, Journal of Transnational Women's and Gender Studies. volume 4, Summer 2007.

“Spatial Discourses in Anita Desai’s Baumgartner’s Bombay,” a chapter in (In)fusion Approach: Theory, Contestation, Limits, ed. Ranjan Ghosh. Lanham, Oxford, New York: University Press of America, 2006 (a division of Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group).

C. L. Innes' A History of Black and Asian Writing in Britain 1700-2000, Journal of Commonwealth and Postcolonial Studies, 2004. Book Review.

“R. K. Narayan,” in South Asian Literature in English: An Encyclopedia, ed. By Jaina Sanga, Greenwood Press, 2004.

“The Sanctuary and the Prison: Women’s Rites/Rights/Writing and Political Activism,” 1999 African Literature Association Conference Proceedings volume. 2004.

"Pocahontas: The Disney Imaginary," a chapter in The Emperor's Old Groove: Decolonizing Disney's Magic Kingdom. Ed. Brenda Ayers. New York: Peter Lang, 2003.

"Becoming Spiritual in (Post)Colonial Contexts: Narayan and the Paradoxes of Myths, Mimicry and Moksha," South Asia Review, Volume 23, Number 1, December 2002, pp.169-188

"Diaspora: Theoretical Perspectives." African Diaspora and the World: Readings for 112. Eds. Bailey, et al. Acton, Mass.: Copley 2002. xix-xxviii.

Two essay entries on International/ Postcolonial writers and topics, one on Nawal El Saadawi of Egypt and one on Sarojini Naidu of India for The Encyclopedia of Life Writing, edited by Margaretta Jolly, published by Fitzroy Dearborn, 2001.

“Poetry as Performance: Hopkins and Reader-Response,” Studies: Gerard Manley Hopkins Annual, Vol. 87, Number 346, Summer 1998: 183-189.

"Naming One's Place, Claiming One's Space: Literature about Immigrant Women," a chapter in Ideas of Home: Literature of Asian Migration. East Lansing, Mich.: Michigan State University Press, May 1997).

"Redefining the Postcolonial Female Self: Women in Anita Desai's Clear Light of Day, a chapter in Between the Lines: South Asians and Postcoloniality (Temple University Press, 1996).

"The Double-binding World of 'Malgudi': Images of Materialism and Spiritualism in R. K. Narayan's Works," West Virginia University Philological Papers, volume 40, 1994 (1995).

"Nature in the Poetry of E. E. Cummings," Spring: The Journal of the E.E. Cummings Society, Centennial Issue, Number 3, Oct. 1994.

"Telling Her Tale: Narrative Voice and Gender Roles in Bharati Mukherjee's Jasmine," a chapter in Bharati Mukherjee: Critical Perspectives. New York: Garland, 1993.

"The Dialectics of Opposing Forces in R. K. Narayan's The World of Nagaraj," a chapter in R. K. Narayan: Contemporary Critical Perspectives. Michigan State University Press, 1993.

Creative Writing Publications

“Kolam: The Art of Remembering” (5 poems). Trumpeter: Journal of Ecosophy (Special Issue on India) 25.2 (2009): 83-89. http://trumpeter.athabascau.ca/index.php/trumpet/article/view/1067/1475

“Water Like Glass; Letters From a Daughter” (short story). South Asian Review (Creative Writing Issue) 29.3 (2008): 229-37.

News & Notes

Interview on AIB Networks: "Our Shared History: African-American History is American History." (Time stamp: 17:51)

Book: Memory Braids and Sari Texts: Weaving Migration Journeys

Memory Braids and Sari Texts: Weaving Migration Journeys

The braid and the sari are the quintessential hairstyle and garment that women in India don every day. They are both texture and text. The braid—often kept long and styled with flowers (especially in South India) or lengthened with extensions (as in North India)—is a prized possession with both aesthetic and spiritual meanings. The sari is a length of untailored cloth material that has been the traditional everyday garb of Indian women for millennia.

Using the braid and sari as the framework and defining tropes that unify the collection, the poems of Memory Braids and Sari Texts: Weaving Migration Journeys carry the memory of independent India, which turned seventy-five in 2022. These verses draw from poet Pushpa Naidu Parekh’s distinct and entangled memories of migrant and diaspora experiences of journeying from India to the United States, the space of one homeland to another, spanning the inexplicable accruing of physical, emotional, and spiritual self and their many iterations. The braid and the sari both embody the draping of oneself and the unraveling of many selves.

Richly layered and textured, this poetry collection explores one woman’s vivid and sometimes muted memories of her life in India, her move to the US, and her diaspora experiences there.