Monika Gehlawat

Monika Gehlawat is a Professor of English at the University of Southern Mississippi. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of California-Berkeley (2008), an M.A. from the University of Chicago (2001), and a B.A. from Stanford University (1999). Her research focuses on Modern and Contemporary Literature, Visual Art, and Critical Theory, with a particular emphasis on intersections between literature and visual arts, Frankfurt School theory, and postwar American cultural studies.

Teaching responsibilities include courses such as English 671: Continental Influences on American Modernists and English 400: Postwar New York Art and Literature. She has published widely on topics like ekphrasis, identity politics in art-literature dialogues, and critical theory applications in modernist narratives. Her book In Defense of Dialogue: Reading Habermas and Postwar American Literature (2020) exemplifies her interdisciplinary approach.

Professional affiliations include the Modern Language Association, Post45, and the Modernist Studies Association. Her work bridges literary analysis with visual studies, offering innovative interpretations of 20th- and 21st-century cultural production.