Please join us in welcoming Dr. Nishant Upadhyay to the Department of Ethnic Studies聽at CU Boulder!聽They received their PhD at York University, Toronto, in the Graduate Program of Social and Political Thought in 2016. Their dissertation received the聽National Women鈥檚 Studies Association/University of Illinois Press First Book Award 2018. The award citation聽expressed聽admiration for聽how Dr. Upadhyay鈥檚 manuscript was 鈥渁 remarkable instance of how feminist scholarship advances non-disciplinary thought and practice by holding anti-settler colonialism, anti-Blackness and anti-caste analytics together, whilst making a contribution to postcolonial studies, transnational feminism, and South Asian diaspora studies.鈥�
Dr. Upadhyay is passionate聽that聽students of color, especially women, queer, and trans students of color, need to feel like they belong at universities. 鈥淲hatever we have to say, think, or write is important for others to learn, and to hear,鈥� they said in a previously published article. 鈥淚t鈥檚 important for us, it鈥檚 important for the communities we come from, it鈥檚 important for the people who are in the majority or are more privileged to hear what our stories are, and we should not feel dejected by being here.鈥� Dr. Upadhyay encourages students to 鈥渃ontinue to do the work you want to do and bring the change.鈥�
Prior to joining CU, Nishant taught Women's and Gender Studies at聽the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and Northern Arizona University. Their聽teaching and research focuses on intersections of race, indigeneity, caste, gender, and sexuality. Their book聽manuscript,聽Indians on Indian聽Lands: Transnational Intersections of Race, Caste, and Indigeneity,聽studies the formation of dominant-caste Hindu Indian diasporas in North America and Indian diasporic complicities in processes of settler colonialism, antiblackness, Islamophobia, and brahminical supremacy. The manuscript is under advance contract with the聽University of Illinois Press.聽
The Department of Ethnic Studies is wholeheartedly overjoyed聽to welcome Dr. Upadhyay!