Sangeeta Ray

Sangeeta Ray is a Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Maryland, affiliated with the Harriet Tubman Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. She directs the Center for Literary and Comparative Studies, a leading institution for interdisciplinary humanities research.

Her research focuses on postcolonial literature, South Asian and Black Diaspora narratives, with recent work addressing environmental studies and refugee literature. She critiques colonial and postcolonial discourses through lenses of gender, sexuality, and ethical aesthetics. Key publications include Engendering India (2000), Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak: In Other Words (2009), and co-edited volumes like the Companion to Postcolonial Studies (2000) and Encyclopedia of Postcolonial Studies (2016).

Ray has held prestigious roles: former ACLA President (2020-21), MLA Division President, and Cultural Studies Association leader. She serves on editorial boards for major journals, including ELH and Interpolations. Her current projects explore South Asian refugee literature across languages and the intersections of form, politics, and ethics in postcolonial writing.

Her academic service includes directing the Asian American Studies Certificate Program and College Park Scholars’ Cultures of the Americas program. She has secured multiple grants and lectures internationally, emphasizing decolonial methodologies and global literary networks.