1. Prof. Dr. Satwinder Kaur Bains
Prof. Dr. Satwinder Kaur Bains is the Director of the South Asian Studies Institute at the University of the Fraser Valley and an Associate Professor in Social, Cultural, and Media Studies. Her research includes and intersects cross-cultural education focusing on anti-racist curriculum implementation, race, racism, and ethnicity, Sikh feminist ideology, and Punjabi Canadian cultural historiography. Prof. Dr. Bains has extensive years of professional work experience in community development and has worked extensively with not-for-profit organizations in the areas of cross-cultural mental health, youth and families, diversity and equity, women’s rights, and socio-religious interfaith dialogue. She is a consummate community advocate and volunteer and has assisted numerous community organizations to develop and grow.
2. Prof. Dr. Nilufer Bharucha
Prof. Dr. Nilufer E. Bharucha is the Director of the Constructions of Home and Belonging Indian Diaspora Centre and Visiting Professor in Humanities at the University of Mumbai, where she was a Senior Professor and former Head of the Department of English. She is Faculty Associate Emeritus at the SASI, University of the Fraser Valley, Canada, and Global Faculty, Fairleigh Dickinson University, USA. She has published widely in the areas of Postcolonial Literature, the Writing of the Parsis, and Diasporic Literature and Cinema. Two of her important publications are Rohinton Mistry: Ethnic Enclosures and Transcultural Spaces and Indian Diasporic Literature and Cinema. Prof. Dr. Bharucha has been on the juries for literature awards in India and abroad. Along with several national and international scholarships, she has also been a recipient of visiting professorships awarded by DAAD at the Universities of Siegen and Muenster, Germany.
3. Prof. Dr. Nandi Bhatia
Prof. Dr. Nandi Bhatia is a Professor of English and Writing Studies and Associate Dean, Faculty of Arts and Humanities at the University of Western Ontario, Canada. Her areas of expertise are postcolonial literature and theory, focusing on India, the Indian diaspora in Africa, and African writing. Some of her book titles include Acts of Authority/Acts of Resistance: Theatre and Politics in Colonial and Postcolonial India and Performing Women/Performing Womanhood: Theatre, Politics, and Dissent in North India. For her research, she was awarded the John Charles Polanyi Prize and was named UWO Faculty Scholar. She is currently working on an SSHRC funded project on the relationship between colonial censorship and literary movements in India from 1858-1947, specifically examining the lives and practices of female performers in India during British colonial rule.
4. Prof. Dr. Chandrima Chakraborty
Prof. Dr. Chandrima Chakraborty is a University Scholar and Professor at the Department of English and Cultural Studies and the Director of the Centre for Peace Studies at McMaster University, Canada. She is also a Member of the College of the Royal Society of Canada. Prof. Dr.Chakraborty has published widely on masculinity and nationalism, Canadian multiculturalism, postcolonial theory, and Bollywood cinema. Her book Remembering Air India: The Art of Public Mourning has been the winner of Book, Jacket, and Journal Show, Association of University Presses, under the category of scholarly typographic books. Her ongoing research is on the 1985 Air India bombings and the violent racism elicited by political crises in the West, such as the scapegoating of South Asian men after 9/11.
5. Prof. Dr. B. Hariharan
Prof. Dr. B. Hariharan is a Professor at the Institute of English, UGC Area Study Centre for Canadian Studies, University of Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram. His research includes a UGC major research project on ‘A Study of the Cultural and Architectural Expression of Public Spaces in Kerala,’ among several other research publications. He has been a recipient of a Doctoral Research Fellowship from the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute to pursue research at the University of Manitoba, Canada. He also translates from Malayalam to English; his translation of Kihote Kathakali from Malayalam to English is included in the forthcoming trilingual edition of Don Kihote Kathakali. His interests include Canadian Studies, Translation Practice and Studies, the study of praxis of reading in the classroom, and studies concerning heritage, peace, and public space. His recent work in Indo-Canadian studies includes Nation-Building, Education and Culture in India and Canada: Advances in Indo-Canadian Humanities and Social Sciences Research, published by Springer in 2019.
6. Farzana Doctor
Farzana Doctor is a Toronto-based author of four novels: Stealing Nasreen, Six Metres of Pavement, All Inclusive, and Seven. Seven has been chosen for 2020 Best Book lists including: Indigo/Chapters, Apple Books, Amnesty International, CBC Books and more. Her poetry collection, You Still Look The Same, will be released in fall 2022.
Farzana is also the Maasi behind Dear Maasi, a new sex and relationships column for FGM/C survivors. She is also an activist, part-time psychotherapist and amateur tarot card reader. linktr.ee/farzanadoctor
7. Dr. Paromita Chakrabarti
Dr. Paromita Chakrabarti is an Associate Professor and Head, Department of English and Director, Global Research Initiatives (GRI) at H.R. College of Commerce and Economics, University of Mumbai. She has been a 2010-2011 Fulbright Nehru Doctoral Research Fellow at the Department of English, Indiana University, Bloomington. Her research areas include migration, diaspora, postcolonial studies, and gender and nation. She is the assistant editor of the peer-reviewed journal Writing Today: International Journal of Studies in English. She has been a resource person at the University Grants Commission (UGC) sponsored refresher courses. Dr. Chakrabarti annually teaches a Master’s level seminar class on Feminist Critical Theory at the University of Sheffield, UK, and has been an invited speaker for seminar lectures at several universities and colleges both in India and abroad.
8. Derek Mascarenhas
Derek Mascarenhas is a graduate of the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies Creative Writing Program, a finalist and runner up for the Penguin Random House of Canada Student Award for Fiction, and a nominee for the Marina Nemat Award. He has works published in places such as The Dalhousie Review, Maple Tree Literary Supplement, and The Antigonish Review. His linked short story collection, Coconut Dreams, was called a “stunning debut” in Quill and Quire’s starred review, and The Globe and Mail named it one of the best reads from Canadian small presses. Derek is also a member of the Writers’ Union of Canada.
9. Dr. Manpreet J. Singh
Manpreet J. Singh is Ph.D. in English from Mumbai University, India, and has
previously taught at Delhi University.
In 2014, she was awarded the “South Asia Diaspora Fund” Senior Research
Fellowship for studying Sikh Identity by Indo Canadian Studies Centre, Mumbai
University. It was a project funded by British Columbia province, Canada and
supported by University of Frazer Valley, British Columbia. Her report is being
published in a forthcoming title by Mumbai University.
Broadening the ambit of her research, she went on to write “The Sikh Next Door: An
Identity in Transition” which was published by Bloomsbury Academic last year. It
studies the heterogeneity within an ostensibly homogenous Sikh identity, and
analyses how different segments have responded differently to shifts in time and
space. The book, despite its academic grounding has received unprecedented
attention from the community itself.
Her interests centre around fresh perspectives on ethnic identities, postcolonial
perspectives, gender studies and their intersections. She is also interested in popular
culture as a reflection of shifting identity stances.
Her previous works include The Golden Arc: A Collection of Poems and Male Image
Female Gaze: Men in Shashi Deshpande’s Fiction.