Profile
Abstract
Miriam Nandi is Professor of British literary studies in a global and postcolonial frame. She received her PhD and habilitation from the university of Freiburg, and attended the School of Criticism and Theory at Cornell University. Research interests include the Indian English novel, postcolonial theory, psychoanalysis and early modern autobiographical writing. Recently, her research focusses on refugee literature, ethics and narratives of care, and social formalism.
Professional career
- since 04/2021
Professor of British literary studies in a global and postcolonial frame - 02/2020 - 03/2021
Project manager European identities, EPICUR, University College Freiburg - 10/2019 - 03/2020
Associate Professor, Centre for Anthroplogy and Gender Studies, University of Freiburg - 04/2019 - 09/2019
Acting Professor English literary studies (stand-in for Prof. Dr. Monika Fludernik), University of Freiburg - 10/2016 - 03/2019
Lecturer, Department of North American Studies, University of Freiburg - 03/2009 - 09/2016
Margarete von Wrangell-fellow, University of Freiburg - 02/2001 - 12/2004
Researcher in the cluster of excellence 541 Identities / Alterities, University of Freiburg
Education
- since 11/2017
Venia legendi, English philology, University of Freiburg - since 01/2006
PhD in English literature, University of Freiburg - 06/2005 - 07/2005
School of Criticism and Theory, Cornell University
My research focusses on the Indian-English novel, postcolonial theory and the early modern English diary. I was also principal investigator in the interdisciplinary research cluster 1015 Otium with a project on colonial discourses on idleness during the Raj.
The monograph M/Other India/s explores literary representations of caste and poverty in the Indian English novel. Social critical literature vacillates between denouncing social injustice and articulating ambivalent fantasies about the other.
My second book Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak is a students' introduction to her work.
Reading the Early Modern Diary traces the historical genealogy, formal characteristics and shifting cultural uses of the early modern diary. It investigates the possibilities and limitations the genre held for the self-expression of a writer at a time in which the individual or subject was not yet framed or protected by a system of democratic individualism.
- show detailsRobinson Crusoe: Adaptations in Anglophone Literature and Popular Culture in the 21st CenturyNandi, MiriamDuration: 02/2020 – 03/2024Funded by: DFG Deutsche ForschungsgemeinschaftInvolved organisational units of Leipzig University: Institut für Anglistik
- show detailsNandi, M.M/Other India/s. Zur literarischen Verarbeitung von Armuts- und Kastenproblematik in ausgewählten Texten der indisch-englischen und muttersprachlichen indischen Literatur seit 1935Heidelberg: Winter. 2007.ISBN: 9783825352851
- show detailsNandi, M.Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. Eine interkulturelle EinführungNordhausen: Traugott Bautz. 2009.ISBN: 978-3-88309-249-2
- show detailsNandi, M.Reading the Early Modern English DiaryBasingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. 2021.
- show detailsNandi, M.The Opacity of the World: Zadie Smith's Swing TimeContemporary women's writing. 2023. 17 (1). pp. 76–94.DOI: 10.1093/cww/vpad019
- show detailsNandi, M.The South Asian Refugee Novel in EnglishIn: Sandten, C.; Karmarkar, I.; von Knebel Doeberitz, O. (Eds.)Contemporary Indian English Literature. Contexts – Authors – Genres – Model Analyses. Tübingen: Narr Francke Attempto. 2024. pp. 249–270.ISBN: 978-3-8233-8591-2
On a thematic level, my teaching covers a wide range of topics in English literary studies, ranging from early modern poetry and drama to contemporary global anglophone literatures. Moreover, I am interested in interdisciplinary teaching, for instance, in disability studies and literature and ethics. For the European teaching and learning project in the EPICUR alliance, I developed and managed international, collaborative, digital teaching projects together with other European partner universities.
In my seminars, I try to create a positive atmosphere for learning by balancing student-based approaches against short phases of input. Constructive and encouraging feedback is crucial in my teaching philosophy.