Padmini Mongia
Professional Biography
Associate Professor of English, Franklin & Marshall College (1994-2001)
Visiting Associate Professor, University of Rome, "La Sapienza" (spring 1996)
Assistant Professor of English, Franklin & Marshall College (1989-1994)
Assistant Professor of English, University of Richmond (1987-1989)
Education
1987 Ph. D. in English. The Pennsylvania State University "First-Person Narratives as Autobiography: The Case of Charlotte Brontë"
1981 M. A. in English. Miranda House College, University of Delhi
1979 B. A. Honors in English. Lady Shri Ram College, University of Delhi
Research Interests
- Contemporary Indian writing
- Marketing of Indian literature
- Children's literature
- Indian Women's Writing
- Gothic and Adventure Fiction
Grants & Awards
- 2002-2003. NEH Fellowship to work on IndoChic: Marketing Indian Fiction
- Summer 2001 NEH Summer Fellowship for College Teachers to do research for IndoChic
- 1994 National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Seminar, University of Pennsylvania.
- 1991 National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Seminar, University of Texas at Austin.
- 1987 Sparks Fellowship Designate, The Pennsylvania State University
- 1986 Graduate School Fellowship, The Pennsylvania State University
- 1985-86 American Association of University Women Dissertation Fellowship
- 1983-84 Sparks Fellowship, The Pennsylvania State University
- 1983 Folger Institute Fellowship to attend the seminar "English Poetic Forms"
Publications
Selected Publications:
- “The Making and Marketing of Arundhati Roy.” In Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things. Ed. Alex Tickell. Routledge 2007. 103-109.
- “Between Men: Conrad in the Fiction of Two Contemporary Indian Writers.” in Conrad in the 21st Century. Eds. Peter Mallios, Andrea White, and Carola Kaplan. Routledge, 2005. 85-100.
- “Medieval Travel in Postcolonial Times: Amitav Ghosh's In an Antique Land." in Perspectives on Travel Writing: Borders and Crossings. Eds. Glenn Hooper and Tim Youngs. London: Ashgate Publishing, 2005. 153-166.
- "Why I Teach Conrad and Achebe." in Teaching Approaches to Conrad's Heart of Darkness. Eds. Hunt Hawkins and Brian Schaeffer. New York: MLA, 2002. 104-110.
- "The Rescue: Conrad, Achebe, and the Critics.” Conradiana 33.2 (Summer 2001): 153-163.
- "Confession and Self-making in the Fiction of Contemporary Indian Women Writers." In
- Telling Stories: Postcolonial Short Fiction in English. Ed. Jacqueline Bardolph. Amsterdam: Rodopi. 2001. 293-301.
- "Contemporary Indian Women Writing in English and the Exclusions of the Postcolonial Canon." Translating Cultures. Eds. Isabel Carrera Suárez, Aurora García Fernández, and M. S. Suárez Lafuente. Oviedo/Hebden Bridge: KRK Dangaroo Press, 1999. 87-92.
- "New Writing by Indian Women." Women: A Cultural Review 8.3 (December 1997): 339-345.
- Contemporary Postcolonial Theory: A Reader. (compiled and edited with an introduction.) New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1997.
- Contemporary Postcolonial Theory: A Reader. London: Arnold, 1996. (compiled and edited with an introduction.)
- "'Ghosts of the Gothic': Spectral Women and Colonized Spaces in Lord Jim." The Conradian 17.2 (Spring 1993): 1-16.
- "Empire, Narrative, and the Feminine in Conrad's Lord Jim and Heart of Darkness."
- Contexts for Conrad. Eds. Keith Carabine, Owen Knowles, and Wieslaw Krajka. East European Monographs. Boulder: U of Colorado Press, 1993. 135-150.
- "Post-Colonial Identity and Gender Boundaries in Amitav Ghosh's The Shadow Lines." College Literature 19.3, 20.1 (Oct. 1992, Feb. 1993): 225-228.
- "Narrative Strategy and Imperialism in Conrad's Lord Jim." Studies in the Novel 24.2 (1992): 173-186.
Poems:
- “Vaishnu Devi,” “Almost True,” “New Delhi, Atrani.” Moving Worlds 4:1 (Summer 2004).
- “The Dead Ones.” Catamaran. January 2004. 31.
- "Words for Angela Carter," in InvAsian: Asian Sisters Present. Ed. Elaine H. Kim. Berkeley: Study Center Press, 2003. 64.
- "Ghazal." in Ravishing DisUnities: Real Ghazals in English. Ed. Agha Shahid Ali. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, October 2000.
- “Again a Dream of Water." Women and Language XVII No.1 (Spring 1994): 47.
Children’s Book:
- Pchak, Pchak: A Story of Crocodiles. New Delhi: Young Zubaan. 2008.
Creative Nonfiction/Memoir:
- “Sister Hyacinth.” South Asian Review 27.3 (Fall 2007): 156-64.
Presentations
Recent Presentations:
• “Whose India? Identity and the Indian Artist in a Global Market.” Plenary at the 2nd Annual Postcolonial Anglophone Literatures Conference. Tucuman, Argentina. November 2007.
• Roundtable discussion. “The Future of Postcolonial Studies.” Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. August 2004. • “Making Indian Literature.” Lecture at Oxford Brookes University, Publishing Seminar Series. May 2004. • Guest lecturer on Conrad at Jesus and Mary College, New Delhi. January 2003.
• “Marketing Indian Fiction.” University of Maryland Modernist Symposium. October 2002.
• Poetry Reading at the Poetry at Noon series at the Library of Congress. October 2002.
• "Who Reads Indian Fiction?" Universities of Oviedo and of Vigo, Spain. March 2000.
• "The Colonial and Postcolonial Novel." Sri Venkateswara College, Delhi University. January 2000.
• "Rereading Conrad's Lord Jim." Gargi College, Delhi University. January 2000.
Course Information
- Introduction to Literary Theory
- The Adventure Novel in Colonial and Postcolonial Contexts
- Introduction to Literature, Food
- The Study of Fiction
- The Gothic Novel
- Nineteenth-Century British Literature
- Indian Fiction in English
- Indian Women Writing in English
- Postcolonial Theory
- Literature of the British Empire
- African and Caribbean Women Writers
- Women and Literature
- Literature and Exile
- Contemporary Postcolonial Literature and Theory
- Charlotte Bronte and Autobiography
- Joseph Conrad
