Shobna Nijhawan : Biography

Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley
South and Southeast Asian Studies (Hindi/Urdu) with a designated emphasis in Women, Gender and Sexuality (2004)

Dissertation: “Public Reasoning as Moral Duty: Hindi Women’s Journals and Nationalist Discourse (1910-1930)”

The dissertation examines the political and literary mobilization of women in the Hindi public sphere in the light of rising nationalist consciousness, changing perceptions of Indian womanhood and the formation of a Hindi literary canon. It also provides a profile of the genre of the Hindi women’s journal as it first emerged in the early twentieth century.

M.A. (1998) Heidelberg University, Germany
South Asia Institute
Modern Indology (Modern South Asian Languages and Literatures: Hindi and Urdu)
Classical Indology (Sanskrit and Religious Studies)
Educational Sciences

Thesis: In Search of New Women. Girl’s and Women’s Education in Colonial Punjab

CONFERENCES, WORKSHOPS, and INVITED LECTURES (selection)

Engaging India: A Multidisciplinary Conference. Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute, Carleton University, Ottawa (17-18 June, 2011)

Panel: Teaching South Asian Studies: Pedagogical Challenges and Curricular Innovations
Paper: Translation, Authenticity and Analysis of Literary Voices from South Asia and the Diaspora

Symposium on Innovations and Challenges in Second Language Pedagogy. University of Toronto (May 13-14, 2011)

Panel: Innovations in Language Teaching
Paper: From Drill to Thrill: Innovative and Pedagogical Approaches to Language Acquisition.

The International Federation for Research in Women’s History Conference (in conjunction with the 21st International Congress of Historical Sciences), Amsterdam University (22-28 August, 2010)

Panel: Racism, Nationalism and Imperialism Intersecting with Women’s Rights
Paper: Whither Colonial Hierarchies? Indian Women Writers and Global Modernity

41^st Convention of the Northeast Modern Language Association, McGill University, Montreal (7-11 April, 2010)

Panel: South Asia's Orients
Paper: "A World of Difference" - Travels in the Colonial Neighborhood.

Society for the History of Children and Youth Biennial Conference: Children at Risk/Children Taking Risks: Historical Inquiries in International Perspective, University of California at Berkeley (July 10-12, 2009)

Panel: Childhood in colonial South Asia
Paper: Courageous Girls and Intelligent Women: Writings for Children and their Parents

York 50 Symposium: The Global Modern: Transnationalism and the Media in Asia
York Center for Asian Research, York University (May 15, 2009)

Panel: Global Imaginings: From the Homeland to the World
Paper: Global (?), Modern and Colonized: Indian Women Writers’ and Activists’ International Networking in the Early Twentieth Century

Heritage Language Workshop, University of Toronto (May 7, 2009)

Paper: Can the Heritage Student Speak? Linguistic and Cultural Competency in the Grip of Academic Culture

Cultures and Languages across the Curriculum
Frankly Speaking: Challenges in Integrating Languages and Cultures into a Post-Secondary Curriculum, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (October 15-17, 2008)

Panel: CLAC and Language Departments: In Competition or Collaboration?
Paper: “I got the point across and that is what counts”. Transcultural versus (?) linguistic competence in language teaching

European Conference on Modern South Asian Studies, University of Manchester (July 8-11, 2008)

Panel: Slavery and the Raj: Representing un-free labor in colonial South Asia
Paper: In the name of national honor and self-respect. Elite women’s campaigns against indentured labor

Department of Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures, Columbia University (November 7, 2007)

Invited Lecture: Of National Concern: Children’s Hindi Periodicals and Nationalist Discourse

Feminist Pre-conference at the South Asia Studies Conference, Madison (October 11, 2007)

South Asian Feminisms: Subjects, Audiences, Agendas

Panel: Archives of Memory and Pedagogy
Paper: Feminist agendas and the Indian Independence struggle

Shades of Brown: Challenges, Myths and Promises. International Educational Conference, Toronto (July 8-12, 2007)

Roundtable for Parents and Students: Teaching “South Asian Studies” in the University
Roundtable for Educators: South Asian Studies as Academic Discipline

Annual TEL@York Conference 2007, York University, Toronto (Mai 1-2, 2007)

Paper: Of Gender, Postpositions and the Past Tense: Seasoning Languages Courses with Technology

Annual Conference on South Asia, University of Wisconsin, Madison (October 19-22, 2006)

Panel: Technology-Enhanced Learning: Lessons from the Classroom (Chair of panel)
Paper: Technology-Enhanced Learning: The blended course "Introductory Hindi"

European Conference on Modern South Asian Studies, Leiden University (June 27-30, 2006)

Panel: From Improvement to Development: Civilizing Missions in Colonial and Post-Colonial South Asia
Paper: Responses to Colonial Discourses on Indian Womanhood

Mapping Channels between Ganges and Rhine, University of Toronto (May 24-26, 2006)

Paper: An Indian Affair: Green Cards, a Marriage Proposal and the Multi-Ethnic Divide in the German TV-Serial Lindenstrasse

Annual Meeting of the Association for Asian Studies, San Francisco (April 6-9, 2006)

Panel: Natural Remedies: Women and Cultural Responses to Science (organizer)
Paper: Cumin, Capsules, and Colonialism: Encounters with natural and allopathic medical practices in Hindi literature

Annual Meeting of the Association for Asian Studies, Chicago (March 31-April 3, 2005)

Panel: Gendered Constructions of National Identity in Twentieth-Century Periodical Literature
Paper: Gendered Citizenship? Feminist-Nationalist Questioning in Hindi Women’s Journals (1920-1930)

European Conference on Modern South Asian Studies, Lund, Sweden (July 6-9, 2004)

Panel: Merging the Unsuitable? British India and Burma, c. 1850-1950
Paper: In the Neighborhood of the Colonial Present: Burmese Women in a Hindi Feminist Ethnography

Annual Conference on South Asia, University of California, Berkeley (February 15-16, 2002)

Panel: Dissenting Voices: Women and the Print-Media in Early Twentieth Century India
Paper: Redefining Gender Roles: The Politics of the Hindi Women’s Journal Stri Darpan

EMPLOYMENT

Assistant Professor in Hindi (current)
Department of Languages, Literatures and Linguistics
York University

Associate Director of the Indo-German Society Darmstadt-Frankfurt (1998-2000)
Program development (research and academic lecture series, conferences and workshops), outreach programming for the public, development of the research projects “The depiction of India in German textbooks“, ”Traveling Sounds – Music and Southasian Migrants“, and “Southasian Literatures”. Newsletter and website editing