Education

2007 St. Xavier's College Mumbai, B.A.
2009 University of Mumbai, M.A.
2010 SOAS, University of London, M.A.
2017 University of South Florida, Ph.D.

Courses Taught

Writing and Research
Literary Genres: Sanskrit Epic
Introduction to Literary Studies
Literary Places: Mumbai/Bollywood
Research and Writing in the Discipline
Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies: Histories and Horizons
Contemporary Novel
Postcolonial Literature and Theory
Identity and Difference
Major Authors: Salman Rushdie
Flashpoints: 9/11

Career Specialties

Sucheta Kanjilal is a scholar of South Asian studies, whose work primarily interrogates colonialism, nationalism and modern Hinduism. Her research examines the impact of the Sanskrit epics, particularly the Mahabharata, on Indian politics. She also works with literatures in English, Hindi, Bengali, Marathi and Urdu. She is a faculty member of the steering committee for the Women and Gender Studies minor at UTampa. She also teaches classes on academic writing, cultural studies, global imperialism, and literatures of the British Empire.

Professional and Community Activities

Kanjilal is currently writing a book titled Mahabharata: The Basics, that is under contract with Routledge. At academic conferences and invited public lectures, Kanjilal speaks on Indian literature, Bollywood, religion, colonial history, sexuality, and translation. 

Selected publications:

“Legacies of Colonial Translation in Contemporary Hinduism: Desexualizing and Re-contextualizing Kṛṣṇa” International Journal of Hindu Studies (Forthcoming)
"Irreverent Readers, Worshipful Viewers: Post-Emergency Epics and Diverging Indian Nationalisms”, Epic of the Moment.  Exploring the Contemporaneity of the Narrative Cultures of the Mahabharata, edited by Anirban Bhattacharjee and Dhrubajyoti Sarkar, Routledge (September 2024)
“From Excluded to Exceptional: Caste in Contemporary Mahābhāratas.” Many Mahabharatas, edited by Nell S. Hawley and Sohini Pillai, SUNY Albany UP, 2021, pp. 343-360 (USA edition), Primus Books, 2023 (Indian edition)
“Muscular Mahābhāratas: Masculinity and Transnational Hindu Identity.” Nidān International Journal for Indian Studies, vol. 3, no. 2, 2018, pp. 18–39
"An Epic Heroine in the Age of Global Commodity Culture: Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s The Palace of Illusions." Journal of Commonwealth and Postcolonial Studies, vol. 6, no. 2, 2017, pp. 1-12.

Honors and Awards

John Iorio Award for Outstanding Graduate Student, USF, 2017
Dissertation Completion Fellowship, USF, 2017
Irving Deer Memorial Scholarship for Cultural Studies, USF, 2016
University Graduate Fellowship, USF, 2012
Felix Scholarship, SOAS, 2009-2010
Sahitya Mandal Scholarship for Excellence in Hindi Literature, St. Xavier's Mumbai, 2005