Curriculum Vitae Dr Rituparna Roy E-mail: [email protected] Address: Van Heenvlietlaan 154, 1083 CM Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Academic Qualifications:
Jan 2009-April 2012: Post-doctoral Fellowship at the International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS), The Netherlands. Topic: “Partition on the Bengal border: a comparative study of fictional narratives in Bangla and English”.
2008: Awarded Ph.D. in English Literature by the University of Calcutta. Thesis Topic: “The Theme of Partition in Selected English Novels of the Subcontinent” Advisor: Dr. Esha Dey
2005-2007: Awarded a Teacher Fellowship (given to UGC-post holding, full-time, permanent lecturers of 3+ years’ experience) for the completion of Ph.D. thesis, under the UGC Faculty Improvement Program (FIP) of the Xth Plan.
1999-2001: Awarded Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) by the University Grants Commission (UGC) of India.
1998: Passed the qualifying examination for Lectureship in India, NET (National Eligibility Test), with distinction.
1995-1997: Master of Arts (M.A.) in English Literature from the University of Calcutta, India. Specialization: Indian-English literature.
1992-1995: Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in English Literature from Presidency College, (affiliated to the University of Calcutta), India. (Ranked second in the University.)
Teaching Experience:
2015-2016: Will teach two courses at Leiden Institute of Area Studies (LIAS), in the Spring Semester – a 2nd year course on ‘Nation, Community, Self - Introduction to South & Southeast Asia’ & a 3rd year ‘BA Thesis Seminar’.
Will co-teach the course ‘Global Challenge: Diversity’ again at LUC, in Block-4.
2014-2015: Taught two courses at Leiden University College (LUC), The Hague - ‘Introduction to Gender Studies’ & the pilot course ‘Global Challenge: Diversity’.
2001-2007: Taught as a full-time, permanent lecturer (UGC-post) in English Literature at Basantidevi College, Kolkata (an undergraduate college affiliated to the University of Calcutta).
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Taught a wide range of topics at Basantidevi, including Philology, Augustan mock- epic (Pope’s Rape of the Lock), Romantic Poetry & Prose (Wordsworth, Shelley, Keats, Lamb), Early Modern Drama (Shaw’s Arms and the Man), and Indian-English fiction (R.K. Narayan’s The Guide).
Editing Experience:
April-June 2014: Worked as a Freelance English editor for Brill Publishers, Leiden.
October-November 2013: Editorial Assistant to Sonja Zweegers for the Special IIAS 20th Anniversary Issue of The Newsletter (#66, December 2013).
Publications:
Books:
(2013), Krishna Sen & Rituparna Roy (eds.), Writing India Anew: Indian English Fiction 2000-2010. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, AUP/ ICAS Series. http://iias.nl/books/writing-india-anew-indian-english-fiction-2000-2010
(2010), South Asian Partition Fiction in English: From Khushwant Singh to Amitav Ghosh. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, AUP/ IIAS Series. http://www.1947partitionarchive.org/node/448
REVIEWS of the above Books:
Reviews of Writing India Anew Jain, S.R. Asiatic: IIUM Journal of English Language and Literature, 8 (2), December 2014, pp. 244-246. http://journals.iium.edu.my/asiatic/index.php/AJELL/article/view/507/474
Bagchi, B. India Vernieuwd. Vooys, 32 (2), June 2014, pp. 79-82.
Review of South Asian Partition Fiction in English Chew, S. English Studies, 94 (2), 2013, pp. 247-248. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0013838X.2013.765225?journalCode=n est20
Contributions to Edited works:
(2013), ‘Of Art & the Artist: Kunal Basu’s The Miniaturist as a Mughal/ Modern Novel’, in Krishna Sen & Rituparna Roy (eds.), Writing India Anew: Indian English Fiction 2000-2010, 111-126. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, AUP/ ICAS Series.
2 (2010), ‘From the Other Side of Violence: A Re-reading of Nayantara Sehgal’s Martand’, in Sreemati Mukherjee (ed.), Many Contexts of Indian Writing in English, 74-83. Kolkata: Avenel Press.
(2009), ‘Marking India’s Independence: Nehru’s Midnight Speech and the Rhetoric of Romanticism’, in Ralla Guhaniyogi (ed.), Romanticism and its Legacies, 149-157. Kolkata: Fine Prints in collaboration with Basanti Devi College, Calcutta.
(2006), ‘Political Fiction: A Reading of Manohar Malgaonkar’s A Bend in the Ganges’, in Tejinder Kaul, Kulbhushan Kushal & N.K. Neb (eds.), Perspectives on the Partition, 147-158. Jalandhar: Nirman Publications.
(2004), ‘Tasveer: A Study of Zuleikha in Kunal Basu’s The Miniaturist’, in Subir Dhar, Amitava Roy, Aparajita Nanda & Deb Narayan Bandyopadhyay (eds.), Romancing the Strange: The Fiction of Kunal Basu, 169-180. Calcutta: SSEI/TGI.
Articles in Journals:
(2013), ‘Postcolonial Cities across Borders: Calcutta and Dhaka in Sunil Ganguli’s Purba-Paschim’, Special issue (Postcolonial Cities, South Asia) of Moving Worlds: A Journal of Transcultural Writings, November 2013, 13:2, Leeds, 138-150. http://movingworlds.net/volumes/13/postcolonial-cities-south-asia/
(2010), ‘The Making of a Nation: Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children as a Partition text’, Journal of Contemporary Literature, January 2010, 2:1, Allahabad, 53-70.
(2010), ‘Re-visioning Partition Narratives: Anita Desai’s Clear Light of Day’, The Commonwealth Review, (Special issue on Partition), 19:2, New Delhi, 24-39.
(2010), ‘Imagined Communities: Questioning the Border and Nationhood in Amitav Ghosh’s The Shadow Lines’, Journal of the Department of English, Rabindra Bharati University (RBU), Calcutta.
(2009), ‘The Hungry Tide: Bengali-Hindu Refugees in the Subcontinent’, The Newsletter 51, Feature-Article, Leiden, 8-9.
(2008), ‘In Conversation with Kunal Basu’, The Newsletter 49, Interview, Leiden, 16.
(2008), ‘Enchanting Tales of Jodha-Akbar’, The Newsletter 48, Review-Article, Leiden, 34-35.
(2006), ‘A First-timer’s Experience’, (Report, 31st Annual IACLALS National Conference, Vishwa Bharati University, Shantiniketan), IACLALS Newsletter, July 2006, New Delhi, 5-6.
My (Occasional) Column on India in the IIAS Newsletter:
3 (2015), ‘Of Spices and Botany, Sanskrit and Bollywood: Four Centuries of Indo- Dutch connection’, The Newsletter 71, Leiden, 12-13. (http://www.iias.nl/sites/default/files/IIAS_NL71_1213.pdf)
(2014), ‘Satyamev Jayate: A Quiet Indian Revolution’, The Newsletter 68, Leiden, 14. (http://www.iias.nl/sites/default/files/IIAS_NL68_14.pdf)
(2013), ‘Rabindrasangit: Uncovering a Bengali Secret’, The Newsletter 65, Leiden, 10-11. (http://www.iias.nl/sites/default/files/IIAS_NL65_1011.pdf)
(2012), ‘India’s Republic Day: Language and the Nation’, The Newsletter 62, Leiden, 11. (http://www.iias.nl/sites/default/files/IIAS_NL62_11.pdf)
(2009), ‘Children’s Day in India’, The Newsletter 52, Leiden, 40.
Conference Papers/ Lectures since 2004:
(Oct 2015), ‘Ritwik Ghatak’s Meghe Dhaka Tara: Immortalizing the Bengali refugee woman on celluloid’, Lunch Lecture Series, ‘Literatures in English’ MA Program, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, 12 Oct 2015. http://literatuurensamenleving.nl/lunch-lecture-rituparna-roy/?lang=en
(2015), ‘Partitions in South Asia: Literature, Film, and Music’, Comparative Literature Seminar, 2014-2015, Universiteit Utrecht, 13 May 2015. http://www.uu.nl/en/events/partitions-in-south-asia-literature-film-and-music
(2014), ‘Charulata 2011: Dramatizing the Glocal’, 23rd ECSAS Conference, Zurich, 24 July 2014.
(2013), BOOK LAUNCH – Krishna Sen & Rituparna Roy (eds.), Writing India Anew: Indian-English Fiction 2000-2010 (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press), IIAS Event, Leiden, 21 Nov 2013. http://www.iias.nl/event/writing-india-anew-indian-english-fiction-2000-2010
(2011), ‘The Nanavati Case: Parallel Narratives in Fiction, Non-Fiction and Film’, (Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children, 1980; Gyan Prakash’s Mumbai Fables: A History of an Enchanted City, 2010; & Sabeena Gadihoke’s article in ‘BioScope: South Asian Screen Studies’, July 2011 issue), School of Social Sciences, Universiteit van Amsterdam, 28 November 2011.
(2011), Organized the panel, Indian-English Fiction 2000-2010: Major themes and trends, at the joint AAS/ ICAS Conference held in Honolulu, Hawai’i, on 1 April 2011. (Also presented the paper, ‘Of Art & the Artist: Kunal Basu’s The Miniaturist as a Mughal/ Modern Novel’, in the said panel).
(2011), ‘The Theme of Partition in Indian-English Literature’, India: Lecture Series 2011, Universiteit van Amsterdam, 23 February 2011.
4 (2011), BOOK RELEASE – South Asian Partition Fiction in English: From Khushwant Singh to Amitav Ghosh (Amsterdam: IIAS / Amsterdam University Press), Kolkata, 3 January 2011. This event was held at the historic Jorasanko Thakurbari campus of Rabindra Bharati University (RBU), Kolkata, in association with the Tagore-Gandhi Institute (TGI) of RBU and the Shakespeare Society of Eastern India (SSEI); and was supported by the Amsterdam University Press (AUP).
(2010), ‘Post-Partition Calcutta: The transformed Cityscape in Sunil Ganguly's novel, Purba-Paschim’ [East-West], South Asia Update, Universiteit van Amsterdam, 24 November 2010.
(2010), BOOK LAUNCH – South Asian Partition Fiction in English: From Khushwant Singh to Amitav Ghosh (Amsterdam: IIAS / Amsterdam University Press), IIAS Symposium, Leiden, 9 June 2010. http://old.iias.asia/events/iias-fellow-symposium-0
(2009), ‘Ritwik Ghatak’s Meghe Dhaka Tara: Immortalizing the Refugee Woman in Bengal’, IIAS Film Show & Lecture, Leiden, 27 October 2009.
(2009), ‘Narayan Sanyal’s Aranyadandak: Critiquing Refugee Rehabilitation in India’, Departmental Colloquium, Dept. of Modern Indian Languages & Literatures, South Asia Institute, Heidelberg, Germany, 3 July 2009.
(2009), ‘Amitav Ghosh’s The Hungry Tide: Tracing the Trajectory of Bengali-Hindu Refugees in the Subcontinent,’ IIAS Symposium, Leiden, 28 May 2009.
(2008), ‘A dream that we all [didn’t] agree to dream: Midnight’s Children and the partitions of the Indian subcontinent’, Kern Institute, VVIK Talk, Leiden, 25 April 2008.
(2007), ‘Shakespeare and Me: My Negotiations with the Bard as a Student and Teacher of English’, SSEI Annual Shakespeare Seminar at the USIS, Calcutta, 25 April 2007.
(2006), ‘Marking India’s Independence: Nehru’s Midnight Speech and the Rhetoric of Romanticism’, Dept. of English, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, (Refresher Course), 2 March 2006.
(2006), ‘Tridib’s Compasses: Location, Identity and Nation in Amitav Ghosh’s The Shadow Lines’, IACLALS National Seminar, Vishwa Bharati University, Shantiniketan, India, 4 February 2006.
(2005), ‘From across the Shadow Lines: The motif of migration in the novels of Amitav Ghosh’, ISCS International Conference, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Roorkee, India, 10 October 2005.
(2005), ‘Arcs of Pain: Reflections on Familial Violence in Kalyan Ray’s Eastwords, SSEI (Shakespeare Society of Eastern India) Seminar, Calcutta, 20 August 2005.
5 (2005), ‘Questioning “Recovery and Rehabilitation”: The story of Hamida in Bapsi Sidhwa’s Ice-Candy Man’, Academic Staff College, Calcutta, (Orientation Program, OP-61), 27 February 2005.
(2004), ‘“Gunaah kiya hai” [I have sinned]: Murder and Morality in Macbeth and Maqbool’, SSEI 2nd World Shakespeare Conference, Loreto College, Calcutta, 7 December 2004.
(2004), ‘Waiting for the Mahatma: R.K. Narayan and the Art of Alterneity’, Seminar on “The Fiction of R. K. Narayan”, East Calcutta Girls’ College, Calcutta, 25 September 2004.
Other Relevant Information:
Academic visits (in the course of post-doctoral work at IIAS): SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies), Dept. of History, University of London, UK. SAI (Südasien-Institut), Neusprachliche Südasienstudien, Ruprecht Karls Universitat, Heidelberg, Germany.
Professional Memberships (held during the last few years): MLA - Modern Language Association AAS – Association for Asian Studies EASAS – European Association for South Asian Studies H-ASIA – part of the H-NET group
Academic Affiliations in the Netherlands (since 2008): Instituut Kern, Leiden ASiA - Asian Studies in Amsterdam, Universiteit van Amsterdam The India Instituut, Amsterdam AMT - Asian Modernities and Traditions, Universiteit Leiden
Academic Affiliations while living in India: SSEI - Shakespeare Society of Eastern India IACLALS - Indian Association of Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies
Languages known: English, Bengali, Hindi, and rudimentary Dutch
Received ‘NT2 - Level 1’ Certification by the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, in November 2015.
Other than Academic:
Fiction: Since 2008, I have been part of a Fiction Critique Group in Amsterdam, named ‘Zolder’ (formerly ‘Mezrab’), which helped me immensely in writing my own fiction.
6 I have written a collection of shorts, Gariahat Junction, and am currently seeking representation.
A story from this collection was published online on 9 September 2014 by Lebowski Publishers (https://medium.com/lebowski-poezie/87f5c4d69285); & I did a reading from my manuscript at ABC, Amsterdam, on 14 December 2014 – at their monthly ‘Meet My Book’ event, a recent initiative to support the English writing community here. http://www.abc.nl/frontpage/events/index.php?show=details&place=abc&event=1357 &utm_source=20141121&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=abc_events
Blog: I blog about Indian (Hindi & Bengali) Films – ‘Kaleidoscope: Celebrating 100 Years of Indian Cinema’. http://rituparnasandilya.wordpress.com/
KALLOL: I am one of the founding members of KALLOL, Indian Bengali Association in the Netherlands; and since its inception in 2008, have been very actively involved in its cultural events and been part of its amateur Theatre group. http://www.kallol.nl/viewport-video.html
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