Professor Radhika Mohanram
BA, MA English Literature (Madras), MA and PhD American Literature (Arizona)
Professor, English and Critical and Cultural Theory
School of English, Communication and Philosophy
Overview
My research is focussed in the areas of English Literature and Critical and Cultural Theory.
I research into, and teach about, postcolonial cultural studies, whiteness, gender and race, trauma, oral history, and South Asian Fiction.
Publication
2020
- Mohanram, R. 2020. Textures of Indian memories. In: Ionescu, A. and Margaroni, M. eds. Arts of Healing: Cultural Narratives of Trauma. Critical Perspectives on Theory, Culture and Politics London and New York: Rowman & Littlefield International, pp. 113-132.
2019
- Mohanram, R. 2019. Sexuality after Partition. In: Mohanram, R. and Raychaudhuri, A. eds. Partitions and their Afterlives: Violence, Memories, Living. Critical Perspectives on Theory, Culture and Politics Rowman and Littlefield
2017
- Mohanram, R. and Raychaudhuri, A. eds. 2017. Partitions and their afterlives: Violence, memories, living. Critical Perspectives on Theory, Culture and Politics. Rowman and Littlefield.
2016
- Mohanram, R. 2016. Specters of democracy/the gender of specters: cultural memory and the Indian Partition. In: Singh, A., Iyer, N. and Gairola, R. K. eds. Revisiting India's Partition:New Essays on Memory, Culture, and Politics. Lanham, MD and London: Lexington Books, pp. 3-20.
2013
- Crane, R. and Mohanram, R. 2013. Imperialism as diaspora: Race, sexuality and history in Anglo-India. Postcolonialism Across the Disciplines Vol. 13. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.
- Crane, R. J. and Mohanram, R. 2013. Gender/mutiny in Edwardian fiction: Charles Pearce's fiction of 1857. Gender Forum 43
2011
- Mohanram, R. 2011. Gastronomia Anglo-India: Culinary jottings in the age of famine. Continuum: Journal of Media and Cultural Studies 25(5), pp. 767-778. (10.1080/10304312.2011.590578)
- Mohanram, R. 2011. Gendered spectre: Trauma, cultural memory and the Indian Partition. Cultural Studies 25(6), pp. 917-934. (10.1080/09502386.2011.575263)
- Mohanram, R. 2011. Special section: Comparative partitions [Editorship]. Social Semiotics 21(1), pp. 53-141.
2009
- Mohanram, R. 2009. Special section: The anxiety of belonging: the Indian partition [Editorship]. Social Semiotics 19(4), pp. 439-513.
2008
- Crane, R. and Mohanram, R. 2008. The iconography of gender: The Indian uprising of 1857. Feminist Studies in English Literature 16(2), pp. 5-30.
- Crane, R. and Mohanram, R. eds. 2008. The Broken Road by A.E.W. Mason. Oxford University Press.
2007
- Mohanram, R. 2007. Imperial white: race, diaspora and the British Empire. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
- Mohanram, R. and Crane, R. 2007. Introduction. In: Ralph, C. ed. Daughters of India, by Margaret Wilson. Oxford University Press, pp. ix-xx.
2006
- Mohanram, R. 2006. The wages of whiteness: mourning and melancholia in 19th Century New Zealand. In: Cattani, F. and Nadalini, A. eds. The Representation and Transformation of Literary Landscapes. Venezia: Cà Foscari, pp. 221-230.
2005
- Mohanram, R. 2005. Dermographia written on the skin or, how the Irish became white in India. European Journal of English Studies 9(3), pp. 251-270. (10.1080/13825570500363492)
2004
- Mohanram, R. 2004. White sex: Rape and race in The Raj Quartet, volume 43. New Literatures Review 41, pp. 65-84.
- Mohanram, R. and Crane, R. 2004. Introduction. In: Ralph, C. ed. Lilamani (Maud Diver): A Study in Possibilities,. Oxford University Press, pp. iv-xvii.
2003
- Mohanram, R. 2003. White water: race and oceans down under. Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History 4(3)
2002
- Mohanram, R. and Crane, R. J. 2002. Introduction. In: Crane, R. J. ed. Love Beseiged: A Romance of the Defence of Lucknow by Charles E. Pearce. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, pp. ix-xxi.
2000
- Mohanram, R. 2000. Postcoloniality and the Canon: Bharati Mukherjee's "The holder of the world". In: Crane, R. J. and Mohanram, R. eds. Shifting continents/colliding cultures: diaspora writing of the Indian subcontinent. Cross/cultures Vol. 42. Amsterdam: Rodopi, pp. 169-186.
- Crane, R. J. and Mohanram, R. 2000. Introduction: constructing the diasporic body. In: Crane, R. J. and Mohanram, R. eds. Shifting continents/colliding cultures: diaspora writing of the Indian subcontinent. Cross/cultures Vol. 42. Amsterdam: Rodopi, pp. vii-xv.
- Crane, R. J. and Mohanram, R. eds. 2000. Shifting continents/colliding cultures: diaspora writing of the Indian subcontinent. Cross/cultures Vol. 42. Amsterdam: Rodopi.
1999
- Mohanram, R. 1999. Black body: women, colonialism and space. Public world Vol. 6. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
1998
- Mohanram, R. 1998. Narrating the nation-in-process: Nayantara Sahgal’s mistaken identity. In: Crane, R. J. ed. Passion, Politics and History: Nayantara Sahgal’s India. New Delhi: Sterling Publishers, pp. 141-164.
- Mohanram, R. 1998. (In)visible bodies? Immigrant bodies and the constructions of nationhood in Aotearoa/New Zealand. In: du Plessis, R. and Alice, L. eds. Feminist Thought in Aotearoa/New Zealand: Crafting Connections/Defining Differences. Auckland: Oxford University Press, pp. 21-29.
- Mohanram, R. 1998. The place of place or the praxis of praxis. Thamyris/Intersecting: Place, Sex and Race 5(1), pp. 145-157.
1996
- Mohanram, R. 1996. Narrative practices and the construction of identity: Edith Wharton. In: McLeod, A. ed. Commonwealth and American Women's Discourse. New Delhi: Sterling Press, pp. 278-291.
- Mohanram, R. 1996. Indian feminism in an international framework. Indian Journal of Gender Studies 3(2), pp. 283-300. (10.1177/097152159600300214)
- Mohanram, R. 1996. The construction of place: Maori feminism in Aotearoa/New Zealand. National Women’s Studies Association Journal 8(1), pp. 50-69.
- Mohanram, R. 1996. The problems of reading: mother-daughter relationships and Indian postcoloniality. In: Brown-Guillory, E. ed. Women of color: mother-daughter relationships in 20th-century literature. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, pp. 20-37.
- Mohanram, R. and Rajan, G. eds. 1996. English postcoloniality: literatures from around the world. Contributions to the study of world literature Vol. 66. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
1995
- Mohanram, R. 1995. Postcolonial Maori sovereignty. New Zealand Women’s Studies Journal 11(1-2), pp. 63-94.
- Rajan, G. and Mohanram, R. eds. 1995. Postcolonial discourse and changing cultural contexts: theory and criticism. Contributions to the study of world literature Vol. 64. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
- Rajan, G. and Mohanram, R. 1995. Postcolonialism/multiculturalism: Australia 1993: an interview with Sneja Gunew. In: Rajan, G. and Mohanram, R. eds. Postcolonial discourse and changing cultural contexts: theory and criticism. Contributions to the study of world literature Vol. 64. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, pp. 205-218.
- Mohanram, R. 1995. Biculturalism, postcolonialism, and identity politics in New Zealand: an interview with Anna Yeatman and Kaye Turner. In: Rajan, G. and Mohanram, R. eds. Postcolonial discourse and changing cultural contexts: theory and criticism. Contributions to the study of world literature Vol. 64. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, pp. 189-204.
- Mohanram, R. 1995. Postcolonial spaces and deterritorialized (homo)sexuality: the films of Hanif Kureishi. In: Rajan, G. and Mohanram, R. eds. Postcolonial discourse and changing cultural contexts. Contributions to the study of world literature Vol. 64. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, pp. 117-134.
- Mohanram, R. 1995. The postcolonial critic: third-world (con)texts/first-world contexts. In: Wilson, M. and Yeatman, A. eds. Justice and Identity: Antipodean Practices. Wellington, NZ: Bridget Williams Press
Articles
- Crane, R. J. and Mohanram, R. 2013. Gender/mutiny in Edwardian fiction: Charles Pearce's fiction of 1857. Gender Forum 43
- Mohanram, R. 2011. Gastronomia Anglo-India: Culinary jottings in the age of famine. Continuum: Journal of Media and Cultural Studies 25(5), pp. 767-778. (10.1080/10304312.2011.590578)
- Mohanram, R. 2011. Gendered spectre: Trauma, cultural memory and the Indian Partition. Cultural Studies 25(6), pp. 917-934. (10.1080/09502386.2011.575263)
- Mohanram, R. 2011. Special section: Comparative partitions [Editorship]. Social Semiotics 21(1), pp. 53-141.
- Mohanram, R. 2009. Special section: The anxiety of belonging: the Indian partition [Editorship]. Social Semiotics 19(4), pp. 439-513.
- Crane, R. and Mohanram, R. 2008. The iconography of gender: The Indian uprising of 1857. Feminist Studies in English Literature 16(2), pp. 5-30.
- Mohanram, R. 2005. Dermographia written on the skin or, how the Irish became white in India. European Journal of English Studies 9(3), pp. 251-270. (10.1080/13825570500363492)
- Mohanram, R. 2004. White sex: Rape and race in The Raj Quartet, volume 43. New Literatures Review 41, pp. 65-84.
- Mohanram, R. 2003. White water: race and oceans down under. Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History 4(3)
- Mohanram, R. 1998. The place of place or the praxis of praxis. Thamyris/Intersecting: Place, Sex and Race 5(1), pp. 145-157.
- Mohanram, R. 1996. Indian feminism in an international framework. Indian Journal of Gender Studies 3(2), pp. 283-300. (10.1177/097152159600300214)
- Mohanram, R. 1996. The construction of place: Maori feminism in Aotearoa/New Zealand. National Women’s Studies Association Journal 8(1), pp. 50-69.
- Mohanram, R. 1995. Postcolonial Maori sovereignty. New Zealand Women’s Studies Journal 11(1-2), pp. 63-94.
Book sections
- Mohanram, R. 2020. Textures of Indian memories. In: Ionescu, A. and Margaroni, M. eds. Arts of Healing: Cultural Narratives of Trauma. Critical Perspectives on Theory, Culture and Politics London and New York: Rowman & Littlefield International, pp. 113-132.
- Mohanram, R. 2019. Sexuality after Partition. In: Mohanram, R. and Raychaudhuri, A. eds. Partitions and their Afterlives: Violence, Memories, Living. Critical Perspectives on Theory, Culture and Politics Rowman and Littlefield
- Mohanram, R. 2016. Specters of democracy/the gender of specters: cultural memory and the Indian Partition. In: Singh, A., Iyer, N. and Gairola, R. K. eds. Revisiting India's Partition:New Essays on Memory, Culture, and Politics. Lanham, MD and London: Lexington Books, pp. 3-20.
- Mohanram, R. and Crane, R. 2007. Introduction. In: Ralph, C. ed. Daughters of India, by Margaret Wilson. Oxford University Press, pp. ix-xx.
- Mohanram, R. 2006. The wages of whiteness: mourning and melancholia in 19th Century New Zealand. In: Cattani, F. and Nadalini, A. eds. The Representation and Transformation of Literary Landscapes. Venezia: Cà Foscari, pp. 221-230.
- Mohanram, R. and Crane, R. 2004. Introduction. In: Ralph, C. ed. Lilamani (Maud Diver): A Study in Possibilities,. Oxford University Press, pp. iv-xvii.
- Mohanram, R. and Crane, R. J. 2002. Introduction. In: Crane, R. J. ed. Love Beseiged: A Romance of the Defence of Lucknow by Charles E. Pearce. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, pp. ix-xxi.
- Mohanram, R. 2000. Postcoloniality and the Canon: Bharati Mukherjee's "The holder of the world". In: Crane, R. J. and Mohanram, R. eds. Shifting continents/colliding cultures: diaspora writing of the Indian subcontinent. Cross/cultures Vol. 42. Amsterdam: Rodopi, pp. 169-186.
- Crane, R. J. and Mohanram, R. 2000. Introduction: constructing the diasporic body. In: Crane, R. J. and Mohanram, R. eds. Shifting continents/colliding cultures: diaspora writing of the Indian subcontinent. Cross/cultures Vol. 42. Amsterdam: Rodopi, pp. vii-xv.
- Mohanram, R. 1998. Narrating the nation-in-process: Nayantara Sahgal’s mistaken identity. In: Crane, R. J. ed. Passion, Politics and History: Nayantara Sahgal’s India. New Delhi: Sterling Publishers, pp. 141-164.
- Mohanram, R. 1998. (In)visible bodies? Immigrant bodies and the constructions of nationhood in Aotearoa/New Zealand. In: du Plessis, R. and Alice, L. eds. Feminist Thought in Aotearoa/New Zealand: Crafting Connections/Defining Differences. Auckland: Oxford University Press, pp. 21-29.
- Mohanram, R. 1996. Narrative practices and the construction of identity: Edith Wharton. In: McLeod, A. ed. Commonwealth and American Women's Discourse. New Delhi: Sterling Press, pp. 278-291.
- Mohanram, R. 1996. The problems of reading: mother-daughter relationships and Indian postcoloniality. In: Brown-Guillory, E. ed. Women of color: mother-daughter relationships in 20th-century literature. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, pp. 20-37.
- Rajan, G. and Mohanram, R. 1995. Postcolonialism/multiculturalism: Australia 1993: an interview with Sneja Gunew. In: Rajan, G. and Mohanram, R. eds. Postcolonial discourse and changing cultural contexts: theory and criticism. Contributions to the study of world literature Vol. 64. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, pp. 205-218.
- Mohanram, R. 1995. Biculturalism, postcolonialism, and identity politics in New Zealand: an interview with Anna Yeatman and Kaye Turner. In: Rajan, G. and Mohanram, R. eds. Postcolonial discourse and changing cultural contexts: theory and criticism. Contributions to the study of world literature Vol. 64. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, pp. 189-204.
- Mohanram, R. 1995. Postcolonial spaces and deterritorialized (homo)sexuality: the films of Hanif Kureishi. In: Rajan, G. and Mohanram, R. eds. Postcolonial discourse and changing cultural contexts. Contributions to the study of world literature Vol. 64. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, pp. 117-134.
- Mohanram, R. 1995. The postcolonial critic: third-world (con)texts/first-world contexts. In: Wilson, M. and Yeatman, A. eds. Justice and Identity: Antipodean Practices. Wellington, NZ: Bridget Williams Press
Books
- Mohanram, R. and Raychaudhuri, A. eds. 2017. Partitions and their afterlives: Violence, memories, living. Critical Perspectives on Theory, Culture and Politics. Rowman and Littlefield.
- Crane, R. and Mohanram, R. 2013. Imperialism as diaspora: Race, sexuality and history in Anglo-India. Postcolonialism Across the Disciplines Vol. 13. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.
- Crane, R. and Mohanram, R. eds. 2008. The Broken Road by A.E.W. Mason. Oxford University Press.
- Mohanram, R. 2007. Imperial white: race, diaspora and the British Empire. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
- Crane, R. J. and Mohanram, R. eds. 2000. Shifting continents/colliding cultures: diaspora writing of the Indian subcontinent. Cross/cultures Vol. 42. Amsterdam: Rodopi.
- Mohanram, R. 1999. Black body: women, colonialism and space. Public world Vol. 6. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
- Mohanram, R. and Rajan, G. eds. 1996. English postcoloniality: literatures from around the world. Contributions to the study of world literature Vol. 66. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
- Rajan, G. and Mohanram, R. eds. 1995. Postcolonial discourse and changing cultural contexts: theory and criticism. Contributions to the study of world literature Vol. 64. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
Research
My research interests include postcolonial cultural studies, whiteness, gender and race, trauma, oral history, and South Asian Fiction.I am the Principal Investigator of the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) project ‘The Afterlife of Violence’ (https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FS006400%2F1) which asks how the experience of violent civil war affects refugees who are forced to leave their homes and to establish a new life in very different society. How does such experience change people's sense of who they are and where they belong? How do they cope with the processes of adapting to a new environment and eventually becoming citizens of their new country? How does this experience become part of family memory across generations? The research team, which includes the National Museum of Wales, is exploring these questions by working with refugees at different stages of assimilation in Wales. Using in-depth life story interviews and participatory workshops, we are analysing memories of war, flight, asylum-seeking and settlement in Wales, and asking how these remembered experiences affect integration.
A co-edited collection of articles on the civil war and its affects will appear in the next two years.
Between 2013 and 2015 I was Principal Investigator on the AHRC Research Network, "Partitions: What are they good for?" (https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FK001949%2F1), and have recently published material on trauma, cultural memory, and the Indian Partition.
I am currently completing my monograph on the 1947 Indian Partition Forget to Remember; several chapters from this monograph have appeared as articles.
Postgraduate students
I would welcome applications from potential PhD students whose research interests intersect with mine or who work on postcolonial studies. Informal enquiries are also welcome.
Teaching
I teach the following modules at undergraduate level:
- Reading Postcolonial Fiction
- Fiction of the Indian Subcontinent
- Critical Theory 3: Postcolonial Theory
- Settler Identity: Fictions of OZ/NZ
and the following for postgraduates:
- White
- Postcolonial/Indigenous
I supervise two PhD students on topics such as Welsh Writing within the Framework of Whiteness and Women's Writing and the Discourse of Madness.
Biography
My first job was in the Department of Women's and Gender Studies and the Department of English in The University of Waikato, New Zealand. I have worked in Cardiff University since September 2000.
Visiting Appointments at the University of Venice, Italy, University of Nantes, France, University of Auckland, New Zealand.
Journal Editorial Positions
- Editor, Social Semiotics (2001-present)
- Coeditor of SPAN (Journal of the South Pacific Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies), 1994-1999. (Issues 38-49)
- Editorial Board, New Literatures Review. (2003-present)
- Editorial Board, Journal of Postcolonial Writing (2005-present)
Contact Details
+44 29208 76151
John Percival Building, Room 1.30, Colum Drive, Cardiff, CF10 3EU