Dr. Aparajita De is the Chairperson of the Division of Arts & Humanities at UDC. Her expertise spans South Asian diaspora literature, postcolonial studies, gender theory, and immersive technologies. She is a prolific scholar with numerous publications, peer-reviewed essays, and invited presentations, and she has received multiple awards, including the UDC CAS Accomplishment in Leadership Award (2024).
Experience
Education
Doctor of Philosophy in English, West Virginia UniversityGraduate Certificate in Women and Gender Studies, WVU Master of Arts in English, University of Calcutta, India Bachelor of Arts in English, with honors, University of Calcutta, India
Roles
Chairperson, Division of Arts & Humanities, UDC, 2023-Present Associate Professor (Tenured), UDC, 2019-Present Assistant Professor (Tenure Track), UDC, 2015-2019 Assistant Professor (Tenure Track), City University of New York Kingsborough Community College, 2012-15 Assistant Professor (Visiting), Towson University, 2011-12 Lecturer, University of Maryland, 2008-11 Editor, Journal of Critical Humanites, 2022-Present Peer Reviewer, LIT: Literature, Interpretation, Theory, 2023-Present External Examiner, George Washington University, 2020 and 2024 External Ph.D. Thesis Examiner, Pondicherry University, 2022 Feminist Media Studies Reviewer, 2018-Present Reviewer, Contemporary South Asia Journal, 2022-Present Reviewer, Routledge, 2016-17
Courses Taught
Speaking in Tongues: Literature in Translation Bad Girls in Literature: Exploring the Woman Question in Modern Literature Introduction to Global and Postcolonial Literatures The Novel: The New Novel in English British Literature until the 17th Century Migration: Studies in Literature Principles of Literary Criticism Discovery of Writing: Food and Identity Discovery of Writing: Paths of Identity: Ways to find Belonging Postcolonial and Black Shakespeares Freshman Writing: History & Identity
Expertise
Research Focus / Works in Progress
South Asian diaspora & partition Literature; postcolonial literary studies; globalization studies; transnationalism & hybridity studies; film and gender theory; cultural studies; technical writing; identity studies; teaching and pedagogy; immersive technologies; and AI
Leadership
Chairperson, Division of Arts & Humanities, UDC, 2023-Present Chair, Grievance Committee, DAAH, 2018-21 Member, Curriculum Committee, English, DAAH, 2016-Present Member, Gen Ed Committee, CAS, 2017-23 Chair, Grievance Committee, UDC FA, 2020-22
Impact
Selected Publications
De, A. (2024). Tracking the academy: Experiencing my projects of belonging. In R. Martinez and M. Casper (Eds.), Betrayal U: The politics of belonging in higher education. University of Arizona Press.
De, A. (2021). Mera Saaya: Shadows of the woman in Bollywood’s cultural imagination. In M. Anwer & A. Arora (Eds.), Bollywood’s new woman: Liberalization, liberation, and contested bodies. Rutgers University Press. https://doi.org/10.36019/9781978814486-005
De, A. (2025). VR to the rescue? Partition, memory and diaspora distance. Modern Language Association Annual Meeting, New Orleans, Louisiana.
De, A. (2024). Whose South Asia. Modern Language Association Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
De, A. (2024). The bridge calls back: Building race-caste coalitions through digital counterstories. Modern Language Association Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
De, A. (2023). Reinventing nationalism through the female terror: Bollywood’s new woman. National Womens Studies Assocation, Baltimore, Maryland.
De, A. (2023). Matrices of care: On COVID solidarities and storytelling. National Womens Studies Assocation, Baltimore, Maryland.
Selected Grants
CUNY KCC. (2014). President’s Faculty Innovation Award: Write this F-wave: Merging the feminist currents and strengthening women’s and gender studies pedagogies and communities on campus and beyond.
PSC-CUNY. (2014). President’s Faculty Innovation Award: Making meanings, suturing contradictions: An analysis of fault lines.
Recognitions
Accomplishment in Leadership Award ,UDC College of Arts and Sciences, 2024 Teacher of Promise Award, UDC College of Arts & Sciences, 2017 President’s Faculty Innovation Grant Award, CUNY, 2014-15 Junior Faculty Innovative Research Grant Award, PSC-CUNY, 2013-14
Invited Participations
De, A. (2012). Rerouting corruption and reading culture: The story of Balram Halwai.Conference on Migration and Human Rights, Rabat, Morocco.
De, A. (2020). Steps towards equity, diversity, and student participation: Fostering affinity space at UDC. American Association for Colleges & Universities, New Orleans, Louisiana.
De, A. (2020). Postcolonial Shakespeares? Caribbean Literatures class, UDC, Washington, D.C.
De, A. (2018). Through the looking glass: Representation in Hollywood’s South Asia. UDC, CAS Fluid and Dynamics Faculty Presentation, Washington, D.C.
