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Usha Rungoo is a Mauritian-American scholar, teacher, speaker, and creative writer specializing in Caribbean, Indian Ocean, and Pacific Ocean literatures. As an African immigrant of indentured descent and a first-generation college student from a low-income family, Rungoo's work intersects the personal and political. Her current projects focus on the themes of colonial laboratories and embodied histories in the Global South. Rungoo's book project, Sirandann Archipelago, explores transarchipelagic oral practices within enslaved and indentured communities, drawing on alternative identity aesthetics. She seeks to provide new ways of understanding decolonial island identities through her narratives. Another significant work, Laboratory Island, investigates how Global South islands are utilized as colonial laboratories in labor systems and proposes that local literatures can advocate for decolonization. Rungoo's academic publications have appeared in notable journals including PMLA and Yale French Studies, and she is a recipient of the National Endowment for Humanities fellowship. Additionally, she has been recognized for her creative writing, winning the regional Commonwealth Short Story Prize Africa in 2024 and achieving shortlist placements in various competitions.
Administered by the Harvard Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS).