Uploaded May 2021 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
The Department of English and Cultural Studies at McMaster University presents Narrating Partition in South Asian Diasporic Writing, a talk with Dr. Nalini Iyer, as part of The Aditi Foundation South Asia Speaker Series.
This talk explores how the Partition of India figures in South Asian Diasporic writing and how different writers (Anita Rau Badami, M.G. Vassanji, Salman Rushdie, Bapsi Sidhwa, for example) explore trauma, national identity, and cultural displacement arising from Partition in their work.
The Aditi Foundation Speaker Series provides funding to the Department of English and Cultural Studies in the Faculty of Humanities for a classroom and community lecture series on South Asia.
About Dr. Nalini Iyer
Dr. Nalini Iyer is Professor of English at Seattle University and the Theiline Pigott-McCone Endowed Chair for the Humanities. She teaches postcolonial studies including South Asian and African writing and courses on postcolonial and transnational feminisms. Her research focuses on three interrelated areas: the hegemony of Anglophone writing in South Asia, South Asian diaspora studies, and Partition Studies. Her publications include: Other Tongues: Rethinking the Language Debates in India (co-edited with Bonnie Zare, 2009); Roots and Reflections: South Asians in the Pacific Northwest (co- authored with Amy Bhatt, 2013); and Revisiting India’s Partition: New Essays in Memory, Culture, and Politics (co-edited with Amritjit Singh and Rahul K. Gairola, 2016). She is the Chief Editor of South Asian Review.
The Department of English and Cultural Studies at McMaster University presents Narrating Partition in South Asian Diasporic Writing, a talk with Dr. Nalini Iyer, as part of The Aditi Foundation South Asia Speaker Series.
This talk explores how the Partition of India figures in South Asian Diasporic writing and how different writers (Anita Rau Badami, M.G. Vassanji, Salman Rushdie, Bapsi Sidhwa, for example) explore trauma, national identity, and cultural displacement arising from Partition in their work.
The Aditi Foundation Speaker Series provides funding to the Department of English and Cultural Studies in the Faculty of Humanities for a classroom and community lecture series on South Asia.
About Dr. Nalini Iyer
Dr. Nalini Iyer is Professor of English at Seattle University and the Theiline Pigott-McCone Endowed Chair for the Humanities. She teaches postcolonial studies including South Asian and African writing and courses on postcolonial and transnational feminisms. Her research focuses on three interrelated areas: the hegemony of Anglophone writing in South Asia, South Asian diaspora studies, and Partition Studies. Her publications include: Other Tongues: Rethinking the Language Debates in India (co-edited with Bonnie Zare, 2009); Roots and Reflections: South Asians in the Pacific Northwest (co- authored with Amy Bhatt, 2013); and Revisiting India’s Partition: New Essays in Memory, Culture, and Politics (co-edited with Amritjit Singh and Rahul K. Gairola, 2016). She is the Chief Editor of South Asian Review.
