Dr. Mariam Pirbhai

I received my PhD in English from the University of Montreal, for which I was awarded the Governor General's Gold Medal. 

My research, teaching and creative writing is greatly influenced by a personal history of multiple migrations, from Pakistan to England, and later to the Philippines and Canada. My publications include my first book Mythologies of Migration, Vocabularies of Indenture: Novels of the South Asian Diaspora in Africa, the Caribbean and Asia-Pacific, and a co-edited collection Critical Perspectives on Indo-Caribbean Women's Literature. I am also the guest editor of a special issue, "South Asian Canadian Literature: A Centennial Journey," for the journal Studies in Canadian Literature. I have published critical surveys on South Asian and Caribbean literatures, and on authors such as Anita Rau Badami, Shani Mootoo and Salman Rushdie. My articles have appeared in refereed journals such as Journal of Postcolonial Writing, Journal of Commonwealth Literature and Canadian Literature.

I am also the current president of the Canadian Association of Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies (CACLALS), which is Canada's oldest and largest postcolonial studies association.

The main areas of my research are postcolonial and diaspora studies. The specific areas of my research are:

• South Asian and Caribbean literatures,
• postcolonial studies
• postcolonial women's writing,
• migration, multiculturalism, and diaspora
• transnational and indentured labour

I have held a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Standard Research grant for a multilingual project on Indo-Caribbean literature. Most recently, I have been examining literature by and about the South Asian Canadian diaspora, with a particular emphasis on recent works of fiction. I am also increasingly interested in citizenship studies.

• IPPY (International Publisher's Book Award) Gold Medal for Multicultural Fiction, 2018
• Governor General’s Gold Medal (for PhD), University of Montreal, 2004
• Nomination: Modern Language Association Best First Scholarly Book Award, 2009
• Nomination: TVO Best Lecturer Award, 2009

Recently, much of the research assistantship opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students I have provided pertain to the literatures and cultures of the South Asian diaspora, particularly in the Caribbean and North American contexts.

As post-colonial scholars often do, I have supervised or supported a wide range of doctoral research. Recently completed or near-completion dissertations include a study of Arab-American /Arab-Canadian fiction (nominated for the prestigious University Microfilms International Dissertation Award), and a study of humour and nationhood in South African Drama. For graduate supervision, I look forward to working with students who can push the envelope –theoretically and critically – in postcolonial studies, and I am open to considering prospective projects in Caribbean and Indo-Caribbean studies, South Asian literature (in English), South Asian Canadian literature, post-colonial women's writing, and minority/multicultural writing in North America (see also “Research/Areas of Expertise”).

Creative

• Outside People and Other Stories. Toronto: Inanna, 2017. Winner of the 2018 IPPY Gold Medal for Multicultural Fiction.

Academic

• "South Asian Canadian Literature: A Centennial Journey." Guest Editor. Special issue of Studies in Canadian Literature 40.1 (2015).
• Mythologies of Migration, Vocabularies of Indenture: The Novels of the South Asian Diaspora in Africa, the Caribbean and Asia-Pacific. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2009. (Nominated for MLA Best First Book Award, 2009).
• Critical Perspectives on Indo-Caribbean Women's Literature. Co-editor with Joy Mahabir. New York: Routledge, 2013.
• “South Asian Canadian ‘Geographies of Voice’: Flagging a New Era of Criticism.” Oxford Handbook of Canadian Literature. Ed. Cynthia Sugars. Oxford: Oxford University Press (Forthcoming 2015).
• "The Poetics and Politics of Snow: Re-Orienting Discourses of Spousal Sponsorship and Gendered Violence in Anita Rau Badami’s Tell it to the Trees.” Canadian Literature 219 (Winter 2013): 39-56.
• “The Jahaji-Bhain Principle: A Survey of the Indo-Caribbean Women’s Novel, 1990-2009.” Journal of Commonwealth Literature 45.1 (2010): 37-56.
• “The Paradox of Globalization as an ‘Untotalizable Totality’ in Salman Rushdie’s The Ground Beneath Her Feet.” International Fiction Review 28 (2001): 54-66.
• “Shani Mootoo.” Encyclopedia of Postcolonial Studies. Eds. Sangeeta Ray and Henry Schwartz. New York: Blackwell (Forthcoming: 2015).