Assistant Professor

Dr Stella Chitralekha Biswas

Department of Literature and Languages

Interests

  • South Asian Children’s Literature
  • Postcolonial Studies
  • Speculative Fiction

Education

2014

St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata,
India
BA

2016

Pondicherry University,
India
MA

2019

Central University of Gujarat,
India
MPhil

2022

Central University of Gujarat,
India
PhD

Experience

  • 2017 to 2019 – Management Approved Part-Time Teacher, Sarojini Naidu College for Women, Kolkata
  • 2020 to 2023 – State Aided College Teacher (category-I) – Sarojini Naidu College for Women, Kolkata
  • Research Interest

  • Children’s Literature of 19th and 20th-Century Bengal
  • Speculative Fiction
  • Postcolonial Studies
  • Gender Studies
  • Sexuality Archives
  • Medical Humanities
  • Awards & Fellowships

    • 2022 - Certificate of Excellence in Academic Writing – York Centre for Asian Research, York University
    • 2016 - UGC-NET in English - UGC

    Memberships

    • Member of Association for Children’s Literature in South Asia (ACLiSA)

    Journal Reviewer

    • Reviewer for GeoHumanities, a journal published on behalf of the American Association of Geographers (2023)
    • Reviewer of Interlocutor, a peer-reviewed journal of the Department of English, The Bhawanipur Education Society College (2023)
    • Reviewer for the Journal of Juvenilia Studies, a peer-reviewed bi-annual journal that is published by the International Society for Literary Juvenilia and hosted by the University of Alberta Libraries (2021)

    Publications

    Journal Publications

    • ‘The Travels and Travails of a Bengali: Reading Sanjib Chandra Chattopadhyay’s Palamau’ – Biswas, Stella Chitralekha - Café Dissensus 9(56), n.p. (2020).
    • Book Review of Revisiting India’s Partition: New Essays on Memory, Culture and Politics. Biswas, Stella Chitralekha - Lapis Lazuli 10(2), Volume 10, n.p. (2020).
    • ‘Alternative Worlds: Ecocritical Tendencies in Select Bengali Speculative Fiction’. Biswas, Stella Chitralekha - Middle Flight 9(1), 372-380 (2020).
    • ‘Daughters of the Nation: Revisiting Women’s Speculative Writings in Bengal’. Biswas, Stella Chitralekha - postScriptum 6(1), 40-51 (2021).
    • ‘Sons of Bengal’ and the Absent Daughters: Gender, Performativity and Nationalism in Bengali Juvenile Literature’. Biswas, Stella Chitralekha - Indialogs: A Spanish Journal of India Studies 8, 183-200 (2021).
    • ‘A Revolution in Print: Multimodality in Bengali Children’s Literature and Its Challenges’. Biswas, Stella Chitralekha - Bookbird: Journal of International Children’s Literature 59(1), 41-51 (2021).
    • ‘Space, Nation and Colonial Childhood: A Critical Study of Bengali Juvenile Periodicals’. Biswas, Stella Chitralekha - Nordic Journal of Childlit Aesthetics 13(1), 1-10 (2022).
    • Review of Ahalya by Koral Dasgupta. Biswas, Stella Chitralekha - Critique and Essence Journal II(II), n.p. (2022).

    Chapters in Edited Volumes

    • ‘Displaced Women’: Reading the Politics of Representing Prostitutes in Colonial Bengal’. Biswas, Stella Chitralekha in The Dynamics of Gender: New Approaches in Feminism (ISBN: 978-81-943450-7-7), edited by Amina Hussain and Mustabshira Siddiqui, pp. 214-228 (2020).
    • ‘A Gendered Space: A Critical Study of Juvenile Periodicals in Colonial Bengal’. Biswas, Stella Chitralekha in Feminist Research Approaches in Practice (ISBN: 978-81-8209-493-2), edited by Dr. V. Bharathi Harishankar. pp. 71-92 (2020).
    • ‘Nature and the Nation: Revisiting the Dynamics of Gender and Ecocriticism in Periodicals for Children in Colonial Bengal’. Biswas, Stella Chitralekha in Gender Dynamics and the Emerging Issues in Twenty First Century (ISBN: 978-9390692187), edited by Aliva Mohanty, Sayantani Behura, Geetanjali Naik and Suprit Panigrahi, pp. 112-122 (2021).
    • ‘Assertive Heroes and Male Heterotopia: Revisiting Select Detective Fiction by Hemendra Kumar Roy’. Biswas, Stella Chitralekha in Critical Essays on English and Bengali Detective Fiction (ISBN: 179364957X, 9781793649577), edited by Dr. Debayan Deb Barman, pp. 157-164 (2021).

    Forthcoming Publications (in press):

    • Delving into a Translator's Journey of Translating Marginalised Voices of Bengal: An Insightful Discussion with V. Ramaswamy-B. Pal and M.M. Rahman. Meta, 68 (2), (2024). DOI: https://doi.org/10.7202/1109347ar
    • ‘The Sexed Body: Prostitution, Policing and the Power of Unbridled Sexuality’ in Sexuality: Literature, Cinema, Culture. Editor: Rishiraj Pal.
    • ‘Colonial Modernity in Print Culture: Revisiting Juvenile Periodicals in Nineteenth Century Bengal’ in The Edinburgh History of Children’s Periodicals by the Edinburgh University Press. Editors: Kristine Moruzi, Beth Rodgers and Michelle Smith.
    • ‘Did the Twain Meet?: Modernism and Children’s Literature in Twentieth Century Britain and Bengal’ in Modernist Transitions: Cultural Encounters between British and Bangla Modernist Fiction from 1910s to 1950s by Bloomsbury Press. Editors: Subhadeep Ray and Goutam Karmakar.
    • ‘Beyond Barriers: A Feminist Reading of Selected Works by Kamila Shamsie’ in Marginality, Identity and Diversity: Critical Debates on Literature, Culture and Discourses from Pakistan by Routledge. Editors: Nukhbah Taj Langah and Goutam Karmakar.
    • ‘The Child is the Father’: The Dynamics of Identity-Formation in Juvenile Literature of Colonial Bengal’ in (Re)Framing Identity in the Subcontinent: Responses from History, Culture and Literature by Atlantic. Editors: Raj Raj Mukhopadhyay and Samrat Bisai.

    Papers presented in National and International Conferences/Seminars/Symposiums:

    • ‘Where the Mind is without Fear: Laughter and Play in Sukumar Ray’s Abol Tabol’ presented at a symposium organized by the Association for Children’s Literature Studies in South Asia from March 18-19, 2023.
    • ‘The Curious Case of the Girl-Child in Colonial Bengal: A Critical Study of Trailokyanath Mukhopadhyay’s Kankabati’ presented at the Conference on Narratives of Criminality, Punishment and Social Justice in CYA Literature organized by the Department of English, Jadavpur University and Association for Children’s Literature Studies in South Asia from August 05-07, 2022.
    • ‘The Labour-Leisure Dialectic: Revisiting Pedagogical Trends in Colonial Bengal’ presented at the 25th biennial congress of the International Research Society for Children’s Literature (Theme: Aesthetic and Pedagogic Entanglements) held at Chile, Santiago from October 19-29, 2021.
    • ‘Daughters of the Nation: Revisiting Women’s Speculative Writings in Bengal’ presented at a three-day Young Researchers’ International Webinar on The Evolution of Bengali Identity: Reflections in Literature, Culture and Society’ organized by postScriptum: An Interdisciplinary Journal on Literary Studies, a publication of the Department of English, Sarat Centenary College, West Bengal, India in October, 2020.
    • ‘Nature and the Nation: Ecocriticism in Periodicals for Children in Colonial Bengal’ presented at a one-day national seminar on ‘Gender, Environment and Sustainable Development’ organized by the Department of Gender Studies, Rama Devi Women’s University, Bhubaneswar, India in February 2020.
    • ‘‘Sons of Bengal’ and the Absent Daughters: Gender and Performativity in Bengali Juvenile Literature’ presented at a two-day international seminar on Gendering Literature and Culture: Australia and the Asia-Pacific organized by the Department of English, University of Madras, India in January 2020.
    • ‘A Gendered Space: A Critical Study of Juvenile Periodicals in Colonial Bengal’ presented at a two-day national conference on Feminist Research Approaches to Gender Studies organized by the Department of Women’s Studies, University of Madras, India in December 2019.
    • ‘The Caged Bird: A Feminist Reading of Attia Hosain’s Sunlight on a Broken Column’ presented at a two-day international seminar on New Feminist Writings: From Emancipation to Representation organized by the Department of English and Comparative Literature, Pondicherry University, India in March 2017.
    • ‘Multiculturalism in Children’s Literature: Analysis of Anita Desai’s The Village by the Sea’ presented at a two-day international seminar on Multicultural India: Inclusiveness and New Humanities organized by the Department of English & Comparative Literature, Pondicherry University, India in February 2016.

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