Assistant Professor
Asian Studies • English
Najnin Islam

Assistant Professor

Asian Studies, English聽

I am Assistant Professor in the English Department, where I teach classes on Global Anglophone, and Postcolonial Literatures. My research focuses on the movement of people, commodities, and ideologies between Asia, and the Americas in the nineteenth century. In particular I study the migration of indentured servants or 鈥渃oolies鈥 from India and China to the British-Caribbean after the emancipation of enslaved African peoples. I am excited to bring this research to students at Colorado College through classes on Caribbean literature and cultural production from the nineteenth century to contemporary times, South Asian literature in a global and diasporic context, and on the connected histories of the Atlantic and Indian Ocean worlds.

I received my Ph.D. from the Department of English at the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to that I received an M.Phil. from the Center for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta and my B.A. and M.A. degrees from Jadavpur University, India. My first book project currently in progress,聽Re-casting the Coolie: Racial Capitalism, Caste, and Indian Indentureship in the Caribbean聽investigates the production of the figure of the 鈥渃oolie鈥 through appositional readings of literary fiction and historical-archival materials on indentureship.

Contact Info

nislam@coloradocollege.edu

(719) 389-6106

Armstrong Hall, #237

Areas:聽The Global Anglophone, Postcolonial Literature, 19th Century Migration Patterns, Caribbean Literature, Labor Migration between Asia and the Americas, Asian Diasporic Literature, Cultural Production聽

Education

Ph.D English, University of Pennsylvania

M.Phil. Social Sciences, Center for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta, India

M.A. English, Jadavpur University, India

B.A. English, Jadavpur University, India