Curriculum Vitae

DR. VANDANA SAXENA

Senior Lecturer
  • Department of English
    Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
  • vandana
  • 03-7967 3502

BIOGRAPHY

Dr. Vandana Saxena is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of English at FASS, UM. She recieved her PhD from IIT Delhi, India and has taught in India, Vietnam and Malaysia. She has keen interest in memories and narratives of the fast developing regions of postcolonial South and Southeast Asia, especially their inter-connections. Her monograph, Memory and Nation-Building explores literary representation of the processes of remembering and forgetting and thier role in nation-building. In 2023, she was invited for a short-term fellowship to Ghent University, Belgium to share her work on the memories of rubber plantation workers of Malaysia.

She is also intersted in Children's and Young Adult literature and has published extensively in the field

AREAS OF EXPERTISE

  • GENDER STUDIES
    Women's literature, biographies and autobiographies
  • MIGRATION
    South Asian diaspora
  • MEMORY STUDIES
    Memory, Countermemory
  • SOUTH ASIAN LITERATURE
    Memory and history, Postcolonial literatures

ACADEMIC QUALIFICATION

  • PHD, (Philosophy)
    Indian Institute of Technical, Delhi
  • M.A, (Arts)
    Delhi University, India
  • B.A, (Arts)
    Delhi University, India

ADMINISTRATIVE DUTIES

  • Project Leader
    01 Jul 2022 - 30 Jun 2023 (Faculty)

MEMBERSHIPS

  • MEMBERSHIP OF MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION, MEMBER
    2024 to present (International)
  • CO-CHAIR, MEMORY STUDIES ASSOCIATION, SOUTH ASIA, COMMITTEE MEMBER
    2022 to 2022 (International)

PUBLICATIONS

Article in Journal
WoS
  1. Augustin-jean, Louis; Saxena, Vandana (2024). Digitalising Chinese New Year Red Packets: Changing Practices and Meanings, CHINA PERSPECTIVES. (136), 21-29
  2. Saxena, Vandana (2023). Afterlives of colonialism: Nostalgia, reader's response and the case of Noel Barber's Tanamera, JOURNAL OF COMMONWEALTH LITERATURE. 58(2), 340-358. doi:10.1177/0021989420971331
  3. Saxena, Vandana (2022). Carnivalesque Memoryscapes of Multiculturalism: History, Memory, Storytelling in Tash Aw's Harmony Silk Factory, CRITIQUE-STUDIES IN CONTEMPORARY FICTION. 63(1), 28-41. doi:10.1080/00111619.2020.1808565
  4. Saxena, V. (2021). Trauma and Ethics of Responsibility: Levinas and Hayashi Kyoko's A-Bomb Literature. Clio-a Journal of Literature History and the Philosophy of History, 48(3), 273-297.
  5. Saxena, Vandana (2021). Malaysian literature in English: A critical companion, JOURNAL OF POSTCOLONIAL WRITING. 57(5), 731-733. doi:10.1080/17449855.2021.1975410
  6. Saxena, Vandana (2020). "THE RETURNING ECHOES OF OUR MEMORY" Networks of Memory and Postcolonial Trauma in Tan Twan Eng's The Gift of Rain, KRITIKA KULTURA. (33-34), 180-197
  7. Saxena, Vandana (2020). QUEST INTO THE PAST Heroic quest and narrative of trauma in Jane Yolen's Briar Rose, CHILDHOOD TRAUMAS: NARRATIVES AND REPRESENTATIONS. , 102-113
  8. Saxena, Vandana (2019). 'Live. And remember': History, memory and storytelling in young adult holocaust fiction, LITERATURE & HISTORY-THIRD SERIES. 28(2), 156-174. doi:10.1177/0306197319870380
  9. Saxena, Vandana; Sigroha, Suman (2019). The ordinary and the extreme: Second World War in young adult fiction set in Asia, HISTORY OF EDUCATION & CHILDRENS LITERATURE. 14(2), 695-711
ESCI
  1. Saxena, Vandana; Dasgupta, Anindita (2018). 'Not a Breach, but an Expansion': Diasporic Communities in the Twenty-first Century, MILLENNIAL ASIA. 9(1), 1-5. doi:10.1177/0976399617753749
Scopus
  1. Augustin-Jean L., Saxena V. (2024). Digitalising Chinese New Year Red Packets: Changing Practices and Meanings, China Perspectives. 2024(136), 21-29. doi:10.4000/chinaperspectives.16458
  2. Saxena V. (2022). Memory and nation-building: World War II in malaysian literature, Memory and Nation-Building: World War II in Malaysian Literature. , 1-189. doi:10.4324/9781003166344
Books
  1. Saxena.V, (2021). Memory and Nation-building: World War II in Malaysian Literature. London: Routledge
  2. Saxena, Vandana (2014). The Subversive Harry Potter. Chicago: McFarland
Chapter in Books
  1. Saxena, V. (2021). 'Matrilineal Legacies: Family, Diaspora, and Memories in Rani Manicka s The Rice Mother.' In Reading Malaysian Literature: Ethnicity, Gender, Diaspora, and Nationalism (Ed.). Mohammad A. Quayum. Springer
Article in Proceeding
WoS
  1. Saxena, Vandana; Dasgupta, Anindita (2017). Local Roots, Global aspirations: Impact of culture on work environment and organizational culture in Malaysian Small and Medium Enterprises in the Information Technology Sector, INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON COMMUNICATION AND MEDIA: AN INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATION ASSOCIATION REGIONAL CONFERENCE (I-COME'16). 33. doi:10.1051/shsconf/20173300070
Other Publications
  1. Nithiya Guna Saigaran and Vandana Saxena (2024). Songs of Tamil Women from Malaysian Plantations. PR&TA, Vol 4. https://www.pratajournal.com/songs-tamil-women-malaysian-plantations - Creative/Art Work
  2. Vandana Saxena (2021) Malaysian literature in English: A critical companion, Journal of Postcolonial Writing, 57:5, 731-733, DOI: 10.1080/17449855.2021.1975410 - Book Review

RESEARCH PROJECT

International
  1. 2023 - 2023, ASEAN plus Mobility Grant, Ghent University
    Women in Asian literature with focus on migration, development and postcolonialism, Gheut University, Belgium ( Principal Investigator(PI))
University
  1. 2024 - 2025, University Grant
    Storybook Savings: Empowering B40 Children with Financial Skills Through Children's Literature ( Principal Investigator(PI))
  2. 2022 - 2023, University Grant
    Using Postcolonial Literature To Assess Development And Its Impact In Malaysia: A Study Of Chuah Guat Eng's Novel ( Principal Investigator(PI))

PAPER PRESENTED

INVITED SPEAKER
  1. Mahadevi's Viraha: Gender and longing for the nation, SANGH (South Asia Network Ghent) Research Seminar, Ghent UNiversity, Belgium (International) (16 Nov 2023 - 16 Nov 2023)
  2. Memory and Politics of Language: Songs of Indentured Tamil Women in Malayan Plantations, Centre for Memory Studies Initiative (CMSI) lecture, Ghent University (International) (26 Oct 2023 - 26 Oct 2023)
  3. An expanding fieldwork, or when a small idea becomes larger than anticipated: Studying Chinese New Year red packets, Let's Talk about Qualitative Research: Sharing the Fieldwork Experiences around the World, Faculty of Business and Economics Universiti Malaya (International) (07 Jul 2023 - 07 Jul 2023)
  4. Conceptualizing links between Money and Memory: A Study of Chinese New Year hongbao, Seminar, Department of Anthropology, CHUK, Chinese University of Hong Kong (International) (22 Oct 2021 - 22 Oct 2021)
ORAL PRESENTER
  1. Uneven Terrains: Land, memory, and capitalism on the peripheries , 19th Triennial ACLALS Conference: Ruptured Commons, ACLALS (International) (11 Jul 2022 - 15 Jul 2022)

ACADEMIC/PROF. SERVICES

Evaluation
  1. (2024) Candidature Defence- Priyasree Suryanarayana (Neocolonialism and Resistance in V.S. Naipaul’S India: a Million Mutinies Now (1990)), University, (Internal Examiner)
  2. (2023) Examiner for Proposal Defence: Priyasree Suryanarayana (17043476/1): Title of Thesis / Dissertation*: 'Darkness', 'Wounds' and 'Mutinies': Re-Reading Naipaul's Indian Trilogy, University, (Reviewer)
  3. (2023) Proposal Defence for Nurul Syahira Bt Kamarul Zaman (17021423/1): Trauma and Identity Formation: The Effects of War On African Children, University, (Reviewer)
  4. (2023) Examiner for Proposal Defence for Farah Nazeer (S2027947): Title of Thesis / Dissertation*: Orientalism and Post-9/11 Fiction: Exploring Power Dynamics in a Thousand Splendid Suns, Home Fire, and Submission, University, (Reviewer)
  5. (2023) A Study of Trauma in Contemporary Children’S and Young Adult West Asian War Narratives in English” by Ms. Arya Priyadarshini (D18066) - Iit Mandi, India, International, (External Examiner)
  6. (2023) Rethinking and Reimagining The Discourses of Religion and Gender in Post 9/11 Narratives, International, (External Examiner)
  7. (2023) Internal Examiner for Kaleelul Rahuman Fathima Seefa (Representations of The Subaltern in Tash Aw’S We, The Survivors), University, (Internal Examiner)
  8. (2022) Procreate or Perish? Being a Woman in Contemporary India: a Literary Study of Select Indian Texts, International, (External Examiner)
  9. (2022) Identitites At The Crossroads Probing Gendered Bodies Through a Play of Language in Mahesh Dattani's Selected Plays, International, (External Examiner)
Contribution to external organisation
  1. (2024) Editorial Board, International Journal of Young Adult Education, International, (Technical Advisor)
  2. (2023) Research- Asean and South Asia Mobility Grant, International, (Adjunct/Visiting Professors)

SUPERVISION

Postgraduate Student
  1. (2024) An Affective Ecocritical Reading of Sisterhood in the Works of Celeste Ng, Lisa See, and Mei Ng: Gender, Race, Emotion and the Material, ZHICHENG ZHANG
  2. (2024) the portrayal of women in malaysian crime fiction, WAN AINAA ATIQAH MOHD ISMADI
  3. (2024) UNRAVELLING THE SIKH DIASPORA: TEASING OUT THREADS OF COMMUNITY FORMATION, DIASPORIC CONSCIOUSNESS AND CULTURAL IDENTITY IN SELECTED MEN'S LIFE WRITINGS, MANMEET KAUR A/P SENTHOK SINGH
  4. (2024) The Japanese Empire in Contemporary Novels in English: An Inter-imperial Analysis, NGOI HUI CHIEN
  5. (2024) Reconstructing Trauma: Silence and Apathy in Hibakusha Literature, NUR AFINI ABDOL AZIZ
  6. (2024) Representations of Neoliberalism and Migrant Trauma in Tash Aw's We, the Survivors and Five Star Billionaire, ELSHA LIEW SHU YING
  7. (2023) The Making of Malay(si)ans: Life-Writing and Memory Work in Two Postwar Texts, THAM WAI LIANG
Under Graduate Students
  1. (2022) INtersectional feminism in Valerie Martin's Property

TEACHING

Doctor Of Philosophy
  1. (2023) AMX7001 - Research Methodology
  2. (2022) AMX7001 - Research Methodology
Master
  1. (2021) AOA7018 - Creative Writing
  2. (2021) AOA7011 - Postcolonial Theory and Literature
Bachelor
  1. (2023) GBA0021 - Appreciating Literature
  2. (2023) AIC3005 - Creative Writing
  3. (2023) AIC2013 - Literature and The Environment
  4. (2023) AIC2004 - Postcolonial Literature: Themes and Tropes
  5. (2023) AIC3002 - Research Project 1
  6. (2023) AIC3004 - Research Project 2
  7. (2022) GBA0021 - Appreciating Literature
  8. (2022) AOA7023 - Literature for Children and Young Adults
  9. (2022) PIB2007 - Postcolonial Literature
  10. (2022) AIC1006 - Research Methodology
  11. (2022) AIC3002 - Research Project 1
  12. (2022) AIC3004 - Research Project 2
  13. (2022) AIC3003 - Women and Literature
  14. (2022) AIC1007 - Writing About Literature I
  15. (2021) AIC3011 - Studies in American Literature
  16. (2021) AIC2002 - Theories of Literature