Bakirathi Mani

Bakirathi Mani is the Penn Presidential Compact Professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Arts & Sciences. She holds affiliate roles in Asian American Studies, Gender & Sexuality Studies, Cinema & Media Studies, and South Asian Studies. Her research interrogates intersections of empire, visual culture, and diasporic identities through postcolonial, feminist, and queer理论 frameworks.

Mani earned a Ph.D. in Modern Thought & Literature (Stanford University), M.A. in Modern Indian History (Jawaharlal Nehru University), and B.S.F.S. in Diplomacy (Georgetown University). Prior to Penn, she taught at Swarthmore College for 20+ years, co-founding the Tri-College Asian American Studies Program.

Her major works include Unseeing Empire (Duke UP, 2020)—awarded an Honorable Mention by the Association of Asian American Studies—and Aspiring to Home (Stanford UP, 2012). Current projects explore family albums as diasporic archives and the politics of anti-Asian photographic representation during the pandemic. Mani also curates South Asian diasporic visual culture collaborations with artists and nonprofits across the U.S. and South Asia.