Research Interests: Queer and Trans of Color Critique, South Asian Studies, Transnational Settler Colonialisms and Decoloniality

Rajorshi Das is a Diehl-Seely Fellow and PhD candidate in English with a certificate in Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies (GWSS). They study contemporary liberal queer narratives emerging out of India across print and digital platforms. Rajorshi’s dissertation relies on decolonial methodologies and archival research to unpack the messiness of queer and trans storytelling in the region. As a commitment towards public engagement and scholarship, they interview activists and artists for their podcast, Queerness and Storytelling in India.

As an educator-activist-poet, Rajorshi relies on critical race theory, disability justice and anti-caste frameworks to recognize knowledge as a site of power that needs to be simultaneously shared with and co-constituted by groups and individuals who have different kinds of capital. Rajorshi has been a teaching assistant in three departments – English, Rhetoric and Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies (GWSS). In Spring 2022, they were nominated for Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award by GWSS.

Prior to coming to the US, Rajorshi taught in Indraprastha College for Women, University of Delhi for over three years.