معرفی
Aanchal Saraf is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Social Science and Cultural Studies at Pratt Institute's School of Liberal Arts & Sciences, where she researches US empire in Asia and the Pacific with attention to how militarism and science co-constitute raced and gendered bodies, knowledges, and ecologies.
Her educational background includes a PhD in American Studies from Yale University (2023) and a BA in Geography and Ethnic Studies from Brown University (2016). She spent 2023-2024 as a member of Dartmouth College's Society of Fellows and was previously an assistant professor at Oberlin College.
Saraf's research spans cold war visual and material cultures, technoscience, fashion, environmental humanities, and feminist and queer theory. Her current book project theorizes the 'colonial fallout' of U.S. nuclear weapons testing in the Marshall Islands, working across official and submerged archives, Asian American and Pacific Islander cultural production, and ethnographies of nuclear displacement as narrated by ri-Ṃajeļ on the Big Island of Hawai'i.
Her publications demonstrate consistent engagement with interdisciplinary scholarship across American Studies, Pacific Islander studies, and environmental humanities. Recent works examine nuclear colonialism, indigenous resistance to scientific projects like the Thirty Meter Telescope, and the intersection of racial capitalism with contemporary fiction. Her writing appears in both academic journals and public-facing venues like CNN Opinions, reflecting her commitment to public scholarship.
- Social Science Research Council Fellowship
- ACLS/Mellon Foundation Fellowship
- National Science Foundation Fellowship
Saraf has received significant research support through prestigious fellowships from major funding organizations. While specific grant details aren't provided in the text, her work on nuclear colonialism in the Pacific appears to be the focus of these competitive awards. Her scholarly trajectory shows movement from Yale PhD candidate to Dartmouth Society of Fellows member to current faculty position at Pratt Institute, indicating strong institutional support for her research agenda. She previously advised students during her time at Oberlin College and continues this mentorship role at Pratt.
