Twentieth-Century Literature, World Literature, Poetry, Narratology, Creative Writing.

• Twentieth-Century Literature

• World Literature, Poetry

49+ years

International:

• Keynote Speaker, World Congress of the International American Studies Association, in Spain. 8-18 July 2019.
• Visiting Professor, New York University, March 2015.
• Executive Director, International American Studies Association (IASA). 2011—2015.  
• Fellow-in-Residence, University of Illinois, Champaign Urbana, USA April 2012 & 2010 
• April 2010: Special invitee and Keynote speaker at CAIR 2010 International Conference, University of Graz, Austria.
• October 2009: Organizer and Executive Member, IASA World Congress, Beijing.
• June 2009: Keynote speaker, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan.
• March – April 2008: Lillian Robinson Visiting Fellow at the Simone de Beauvoir Institute for Feminist Studies, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada.
• Nov – Dec 2006: Visiting Academic, Rothermere American Institute, Oxford University, UK.
• 2005 onward - Member, Executive Council of the International American Studies Association (IASA), headquarters in USA.
• 1998-99: International Fellowship, Rockefeller Foundation, at the International Forum for US Studies, University of Iowa.
• 1996, April-May: Fellowship, Salzburg Seminar Workshop on “Themes in Contemporary American Literature” (April 1996) sponsored by USIA, Washington.
• 1995, September-October:  Resident Fellowship, Bellagio Study and Conference Center, Italy. (sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation)
• 1991-92: Post-Doctoral Fulbright Research Grant, Harvard and Yale Universities, USA. (sponsored by USEFI)

In India:

• Award for Best Novel in English, from the Chandigarh Sahitya Akademi, 2022.
• Award for the best published poetry collection in English from the Chandigarh Sahitya Akademi. March 2020.
• Award of Recognition for Lifetime achievement from Chandigarh Sahitya Akademi, April 2016.
• Chairperson, Chandigarh Sahitya Akademi. June 2008 to June 2015.  
• Director of the Panjab University, Study Centre for Indian Administrative and Allied Services, 2008-2010. 
• Member, Governing Body, North Zone Cultural Centre. 2008—2016. 
• Nominated Member, Regional Advisory Committee, Indian Council for Cultural Relations. 2011 Feb onward.  
• Member, Governor’s Advisory Committee, Chandigarh, Union Territory. 2008 to 2016.
• Since 2013: Peer Team Assessor for NAAC (National Assessment and Accreditation Council).
• August 2013:  Awarded International Travel Grant from American Center, Delhi.
• 2011-13: Associate Scholar, Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla,
• 2008: Award for Creative Excellence by First Friday Forum, Chandigarh.
• 1998-2002: President, MELUS-India (the Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States, India Chapter).
• 1997 till date: Founding Secretary/Chief Functionary of MELUS-India, now MELOW.
• 1996-2000: Member, Board of Directors, American Studies Research Centre, Hyderabad.
• 1996-98: Member of Executive Committee of ASRC, Hyderabad.
• 1994: Awarded University Grants Commission Text Book Grant. 
• 1991 March: Olive I. Reddick (Sr.) Award for the best literature paper presented at the annual conference of the Indian Association for American Studies, Bombay.
• 1989 August: William Mulder Research Grant from ASRC, Hyderabad.

BOOKS:

Academic –

• Routledge Encyclopedia of Indian Writing in English. Co-edited with Tej N. Dhar. September 2023.
• Essays on American Literature: Signposts and Landmarks. Arun Publishing House, Chandigarh. January 2021. 
• Narratives Across Cultures. Newcastle, UK: Cambridge Scholars, 2016.
• Deepa Mehta’s Elemental Trilogy. New Delhi: Readworthy Press, July 2011.
• Landmarks of American Literature, ed. New Delhi: Prestige. March 2007.
• Politics of Location in the Multi-Ethnic Literatures of the Americas, co-edited with Anil Raina (Chandigarh: Arun Publishing House, 2003). 
• An Annotated Anthology of English and American Poetry (University Grants Commission Text Book Award). Chandigarh: Panjab University Publication Bureau, 2002.
• Cross-Cultural Transactions in Multi-Ethnic Literatures of America, eds. Anil Raina, Manju Jaidka, Somdatta Mandal and Vijay Kumar Sharma.  New Delhi: Prestige Press, 2002
• From Slant to Straight: Recent Trends in Women's Poetry.  New Delhi: Prestige Publishers, 2000.
• T. S. Eliot's Use of Popular Sources (Mellen Press, USA, 1997). Post-Doctoral Fulbright project for which research was carried out at the Houghton (Harvard University, Cambridge, MA), Beinecke (Yale), Harry Ramson Centre (Austin, Texas), and New York Public Library. 
• Tiresias and Other Masks: English and American Poetry after The Waste Land.  Chandigarh: Arun Publishing House, 1994.
•  Confession and Beyond: The Poetry of Sylvia Plath. Chandigarh: Arun Publishing House, 1992.

Non-fictional Prose:

•  The Next Milestone: A Mother’s Journal. Chandigarh: Graphit India, 2017.

Creative Writing:

•  A World in Flames/Sulagta Sansar (Poetry in English/Hindi). Chandigarh: June 2024.
• When Cato Played Cupid and Other Stories. Petals Publishers, 2022.
• Gumshoe Mania: A Novel. Vishwakarma Publishing House, November 2021. 
• Covid’s Metamorphosis: Stories from our Corona Times. Amazon Kindle publication, Sept 2020. https://www.amazon.in/COVIDS-METAMORPHOSIS-STORIES-CORONA-TIMES-ebook/dp/B08HQR3W85 
• Saudade. Poetry collection. Sapatrishi Publications, Chandigarh. December 2019.
• Amaltas Avenue: A Novel. New Delhi: Lifi Publishers, June 2014. 
• For Reasons Unknown. Poetry anthology. Allahabad: Cyberwit. Jan 2013. 
• Scandal Point: A Novel. New Delhi: Rupa Publishers. Dec 2011.
• Poetry (Ed.): Chandigarh Chapbook: Poetry 2010. A Chandigarh Sahitya Akademi Publication, March 2010.
• Novel: Spots of Time: A Novel. Chandigarh: Graphit India. Oct 2007
• Play: The Seduction and Betrayal of Cat Whiskers: An Academic Satire. Chandigarh: Graphit India. Oct 2007. Rpt Jan 2013.
• Ed. Vignettes: Anthology of Short Stories by Women (translated from Hindi) for Sahitya Akademi, Delhi. 2018. [Plus four books edited for the Chandigarh Sahitya Akademi in 2009]

Work in Progress: Ongoing work on an Encyclopaedia of Diasporic Indian Writing in English (for Springer)

Research Papers: Approximately 80 in reputed national/international journals.

I have attended and participated as a visiting faculty in several national and international seminars and conferences and presented papers internationally at different places in India and abroad. I have lectured at places including University of Concordia, Montreal; U of Alcala de Henares, Madrid, Spain; U of Hawaii at Manoa, U of Illinois at Urbana Champaign; U California at Fresno, Irvine, Riverside and Cupertino; U Wisconsin at Madison and Eau Claire; Dickinson College PA, Dartmouth, SUNY Buffalo, Upenn, U Vermont, U Miami, U Pittsburgh, U Chicago, Loyola U Chicago,  Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Denver, Boulder – CO, MIT – Boston, Louisville (Kentucky), and Harvard University (Cambridge, MA), University of Iowa (USA); In UK I have had speaking engagements / lectures at Oxford, Birmingham, Nottingham Trent, Northampton, Leeds, London, Colchester; in Europe at Heidelberg (Germany), Salzburg and Graz (Austria), Bellagio (Italy); Beijing in China, Kathmandu in Nepal, Seoul in Korea, Taipei in Taiwan, and  Dhaka in Bangladesh.  I have also participated in international conferences like the ALA, NEMLA, MLA and the PCA.