Novel in the World Series" Presents Gaurav Desai, African Colonialism Expert
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. - Gaurav Desai, professor of English at Tulane University, will give the last lecture of the Williams College English department's "Novel in the World Series" on Friday, March 13, at 4 p.m. in Griffin Hall, room 3. The event is free and open to the public.Growing up Desai lived in India, Kenya, and Tanzania. He attended Northwestern University for his undergraduate education and received his Ph.D. from Duke University. He currently serves as the chair of the department of English at Tulane University, in addition to teaching in its Program of African and African Diaspora Studies.
Desai is the recipient of a number of honors, including a fellowship at the National Humanities Center, a Rockefeller residency at the Bellagio Center in Italy, and a visiting fellowship at Clare Hall, Cambridge University of which he is now a Life Member.
At Duke, his dissertation focused on the colonial library, texts written on issues of African rationality, ethnicities, and histories. He has since published a book on the topic, "Subject to Colonialism: African Self-Fashioning and the Colonial Library."
David William Cohen, professor at the University of Michigan, praised the book as "a thoroughly original work. 'Subject to Colonialism' establishes Desai as a new authority in the study of African letters and thought across the twentieth century."
Desai has also co-edited the work "Postcolonialisms: An Anthology of Cultural Theory and Criticism" and is the author of numerous articles in journals including Cultural Critique, Boundary 2, Representations, Research in African Literatures, and Genders.
