Dr. Elizabeth Jackson
Senior Lecturer, Literatures in English
I am a specialist in South Asian and South Asian diasporic literature, though I have also taught a range of courses in British and American literature at UWI since 2011 and previously at the University of London. My research interests include gender and the construction of identity in various cultural contexts. I have published three single-authored books: Feminism and Contemporary Indian Women’s Writing (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), Muslim Indian Women Writing in English (Peter Lang, 2017), and Global Childhoods and Cosmopolitan Identities in Literature (Brill, 2022). I have also contributed essays to edited collections, as well as numerous peer-reviewed articles published in ARIEL, the Journal of Commonwealth Literature, and the South Asian Review, among other journals. I am interested in supervising postgraduate research on subjects from South Asian, South Asian diasporic, British, American, and cosmopolitan literatures, including projects with a focus on gender, on ethical issues, and on constructions and representations of cultural identity.
Qualification
- PhD, Goldsmiths College, University of London (UK)
- MA with Distinction, Open University (UK)
- BA, Smith College (USA)
Research Interests
- South Asian and South Asian diasporic literature
- Gender
- Postcolonial studies
- Globalization and the emergence of cosmopolitan experiences and perspectives
- The construction of cultural identity
- Literary explorations of ethical issues
Featured Work
- Global Childhoods and Cosmopolitan Identities in Literature, Brill, 2022
- “Problematizing National /Cultural Affiliations in Postcolonial Literature: Inclusions and Exclusions in the Reception of Doris Lessing and V.S. Naipaul”. Journal of Commonwealth Literature, vol. 57, no. 1, 2022, pp. 32-46
- “Cosmopolitan Attitudes and Cosmopolitan Identities in Amitav Ghosh’s The Shadow Lines.” South Asian Review, vol. 43, issue 3-4, 2022, pp. 171-183
- “Obituary: V.S. Naipaul, 1932-2018”, Journal of Commonwealth Literature, vol. 53, no. 4, 2018, pp. 729-734 (invited submission)
- “Responding to Patriarchy in India: Resistance and Complicity in Samina Ali’s Madras on Rainy Days and Anita Desai’s Fasting, Feasting.” Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature, vol. 37, no. 1, 2018, pp. 151-171
- Muslim Indian Women Writing in English: Class Privilege, Gender Disadvantage, Minority Status, Peter Lang, 2017
- “Globalization, Diaspora and Cosmopolitanism in Kiran Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss.” ARIEL, vol. 47, no. 4, 2016, pp. 25-44
- “Voyeurism or Social Criticism?: Women and Sexuality in David Dabydeen’s The Intended, The Counting House, and Our Lady of Demerara”. Women: A Cultural Review, vol. 26, no. 4, 2015, pp. 427-442
- “Transcending the Politics of ‘Where You're From’: Postcolonial Nationality and Cosmopolitanism in Jhumpa Lahiri's Interpreter of Maladies.” ARIEL, vol. 43, no. 1, 2012, pp. 109-126
- Feminism and Contemporary Indian Women’s Writing, Palgrave Macmillan, 2010
Courses Taught
- LITS 1002 Introduction to Prose Fiction
- LITS 2106 Origins and Development of American Literary Prose
- LITS 2108 Modern American Literary Prose
- LITS 3704 Tradition and Change in Modern Literature A
- LITS 3801 Indian Literature in English
- LITS 3802 Literature of the Indian Diaspora
