Jigna Desai

Jigna Desai is a Professor in the Departments of Feminist Studies and Asian American Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She holds a PhD in English with Feminist Studies from the University of Minnesota. Her interdisciplinary research spans queer of color critique, critical disability studies, and diasporic media studies. Current work examines neural selfhood and neurocitizenship through feminist science studies. She co-edited Beyond Bollywood (2004), a foundational text on South Asian diasporic cinema, and co-founded the MN Youth Story Squad, a K-12 university partnership. As director of the Center for Feminist Futures, she advances intersectional frameworks for social justice.

• Education: PhD English with Feminist Studies, University of Minnesota

Research focuses on: diasporic feminisms, queer diasporas of the Brown Atlantic, and racial necropower. Over 100 mentees include graduate students and junior faculty. Awards include Mellon Foundation grants for decolonial projects. Key contributions include transnational feminism analyses in South Asia and advocacy for racial justice in higher education.