Drishadwati Bargi

I work at the intersection of postcolonial Cultural Studies and theories of authoritarianism in the wake of European Fascism, with an emphasis on modern experiences of caste-based exclusion in the Global South. My intellectual journey spans two countries, the US and India. I have earned my PhD from the Department of Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature, Univesity of Minnesota. Before joining my PhD program, I received an M.Phil in Women's Studies and an MA in English Literature from Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India. My dissertation, "Banality Remediated, Dalit Visions in Times of Spectacular Majoritarianism," articulated three overlapping fields of inquiry: the massive mediatization of Indian politics and its effect on democratic participation, the question of freedom under conditions of social, political, and intellectual tyranny, and the critical role of Dalit and Bahujan writers, filmmakers, artists, and activists in offering analysis of this moment of counter-revolution. I am working towards turning this dissertation into a book-length manuscript.

My upcoming/current courses are as follows: 

* ASIAN 253 South Asian Feminism: Contemporary Expressions (MT with WGS)
* ASIAN 395 Festivals of South Asia: Cultural and Archival Interrogations (MT with Comp Lit)
* ASIAN 280 Social Media in India and US (MT with FTVM)

For a list of my publications, check out my department's faculty webpage Drishadwati Bargi | U-M LSA Asian Languages and Cultures