Neetu Khanna

Neetu Khanna is an Associate Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Southern California (USC), affiliated with the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. She holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from UCLA (2011) and a B.A. from Brown University (2003). Her research focuses on decolonization's visceral logics, global marxisms, postcolonial theory, and materialist aesthetics, with expertise in Hindi, Urdu, Russian, English, and Spanish literatures. She served as an Andrew Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at Wesleyan University (2011-2012).

Her work examines how literature and art disrupt colonial emotive sensibilities, particularly through studies of Muslim internationalist art and South Asian feminist writers like Rashid Jahan and Ismat Chughtai. Key themes include embodied experience, queer and feminist theory, and the intersection of political feeling with decolonial movements.

Awards:

• USC Community Achievement Award (2017-2018) for contributions to undergraduate education of marginalized communities
• USC Zumberge Research and Innovation Fund Award (2014-2015)

Her publications explore transnational solidarity, affect theory, and materialist critiques of colonial legacies. Current research continues interrogating the visceral dimensions of anti-colonial movements through interdisciplinary frameworks.