Principal Supervisor: Dr Anandi Rao (School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics; SOAS, University of London)

Co-Supervisor: Professor Heike Bauer (School of Creative Arts, Culture & Communication (CCC), Birkbeck)

Project Description

South Asian queer culture, history and politics have received considerable critical attention over the last two decades. Since the publication of groundbreaking studies such as Gayatri Gopinath’s Impossible Desire (2005) and Anjali Arondekar’s For the Record (2009), a growing corpus of research on queer meaning-making in South Asia and the diaspora has explored the distinctiveness and richness of Queer South Asia (Arondekar and Patel, 2016), especially from ethnographic (Srila Roy 2022), oral history and archival (Arondekar 2009; Mahn, Dasgupta and DJ Ritu 2025) and film studies (Luther 2023; Gopinath 2005, 2018) perspectives.

This study aims to fills a gap in this rich scholarship by turning attention specifically to the breath and significance of literary production in queer meaning-making among South Asians (whether in South Asia or the Diaspora) today. It uses the concept of queer meaning-making as an umbrella term to consider how people whose bodies and desires do not fit social norms and expectations articulate a sense of self as well as wider community through literary production. While much queer self-expression today is buoyed by social media activity, the project explores the hypothess that the literary realm including traditional and digital publishing remains an important arena for queer expression.

The project will turn attention to contemporary authors whose work has not yet received full critical attention such as Suniti Namjoshi (writing in English), Ifti Nasim (Urdu), Kinshuk Gupta (Hindi), Danish Sheikh (English), Shyam Selvadurai (English), Rahman Abbas (Urdu), Madhu Kankatia (Hindi), Tarun Soni (Hindi) and  Shabnum Negi (Hindi). It will also examine digital texts on sites such as Rekhta (Urdu), Caravanserai (English/Urdu on Instagram), Tasavvurnama (English, based in Pakistan).

Supported by the supervisors, the project student will play an active role in finalising the literary corpus for analysis with a focus on exploring the work of understudied yet widely read authors.

Aims and Objectives

A key aim of the project is to map current queer literary production in at least two South Asian languages and identify their distinctive characteristics as well as concerns shared across linguistic and other cultural boundaries.  In so doing, key objectives are to deepen understanding of the breadth of queer South Asian writing and thus queer meaning-making itself in South Asia well as the diaspora today.

 The study will be guided by following main research questions:

• How is queerness articulated in contemporary South Asian literary production in English and other “Vernacular” languages?
• How is the word queer deployed across languages and genres?
• What can the literary texts tell us about the realities, limits and possibilities of queer life in regions where growing populism goes hand in hand with widespread cultures of protests and resistance?
• What is the role of multilingualism in queer meaning-making?
• What are the defining features and key concerns of queer South Asian literary writing today?

Methodology

To capture the breadth of writing and the social realities it draws on, the project develops a distinctive comparative approach which challenges the prevalent distinction between Anglophone literature and “vernacular literature” that underpins many analyses of South Asian queer literature [c.f. Chakraborty and Chakraborty 2023)]. Adopting the position that English is a vernacular South Asian language, the study proposes to undertake a comparative analysis of contemporary queer literary production in English and at least one other South Asian language (preferably Hindi/Urdu or Tamil)

The analysis will entail:

1. Selection of “conventionally” published texts in English and at least one other South Asian language, notably Urdu, Hindi or Tamil.
2. Close reading, interpretation and contextual analysis of selected texts. This will include an overview of the full oeuvre published by the selected authors including a timelines and indication of key themes covered in their work; a systematic literature review of secondary writings on these authors, as well as close reading of the language, metaphors and rhetorical style by which queerness in animated in the selected texts

Comparative analysis: the individual thesis chapters will be organised thematically focusing on more than one writer, in order to make an argument about the way language is used to mobilize, represent or creative affective affinities with queer identities. The comparative analysis will also allow the student to highlight the role hybridized languages, like Hinglish, for instance, play in making queerness legible.

Subject Areas/Keywords:

Queer Studies, South Asian Literature

Key References:

• Chakraborty, K., & Chakraborty, A.S. (Eds.). (2023). The Queer and the Vernacular Languages in India: Studies in Contemporary Texts and Cultures (1st ed.). Routledge India
•  Mahn, Churnjeet, Rohit K. Dasgupta, and D. J. Ritu (2025). Desi Queers: LGBTQ+ South Asians and Cultural Belonging in Britain London: Hurst Publishing
• Anjali Arondekar, Geeta Patel; Area Impossible: Notes toward an Introduction. GLQ 1 April 2016; 22 (2): 151–171. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/10642684-3428687
• Gopinath, Gayatri. 2005. Impossible Desires: Queer Diasporas and South Asian Public Cultures. Durham: Duke University Press.

Further details about the project may be obtained from:

Principal Supervisor: Dr Anandi Rao, ar75@soas.ac.uk

Co-Supervisor: Prof Heike Bauer, h.bauer@bbk.ac.uk

Further information about PhDs at SOAS, University of London is available from:

https://www.soas.ac.uk/research/postgraduate-research-degrees

How to Apply

Please apply to either the PhD in South Asia or the PhD in Cultural, Literary and Postcolonial Studies at SOAS University of London.

In your personal statement please state you are applying for the studentship. The research proposal should reflect the applicant’s response to the funded project’s brief and scope.

Closing date for applications is:

27th March 2026

Interviews to be held 28th April 2026