CMS Borders Research Group is excited to present the second event of the Borders Group Speaker Series with Dr. Nikhita Obeegadoo (Assistant Professor in Languages and World Literatures at UBC Okanagan).
RSVP below for this talk.
Abstract
The island of Mayotte is an overseas department of France, wrenched away from the Comoran archipelago in 1975. This act of colonial mutilation gave birth to an ultra-peripheral “French” territory that persists as a beacon of hope for Comoran clandestine migrants, thousands of whom have perished on the treacherous sea crossing since 1995. In Tropique de la violence (2016), Nathacha Appanah inscribes the Mahoran tragedy within a global imaginary of migration. This exploration culminates in an examination of the novel’s own complex positionality as a French-language novel written by a Mauritian author about Mayotte.
Speaker Bio
Dr. Nikhita Obeegadoo is an Assistant Professor in Languages and World Literatures at UBC Okanagan. Her research interests lie in the areas of Oceanic and Archipelagic Studies; Indian Ocean and Caribbean Studies; Critical Race Studies Gender Studies; Contemporary literatures from the Global South, including Africa, South Asia and Latin America, among others.
