Dr. Rahul K. Gairola

Adjunct Instructor

rgairola@cornish.edu

Rahul K. Gairola received a joint PhD in English Literature and Theory & Criticism from the University of Washington (UW) in December 2009 He has completed doctoral research on fellowships and grants at Cambridge University (Pembroke College and CRASSH), Humboldt University of Berlin, Cornell University (School of Criticism & Theory), and The Simpson Center for the Humanities.  He taught undergraduates for two years, at the age of 23, while completing an MA at Rhode Island College, then taught for the Department of English and Comparative History of Ideas Program (CHID) at UW for a total of 11 years.  He views teaching as a form of classroom activism and contribution back to the community, and strives for harmony between learning inside of the institution with living outside of it.  He also views publishing as a necessary mode of “outreach activism” that empowers the dialogues forged inside the classroom with a global reach, and regularly engages in community outreach, volunteer work, conference and professional gatherings, and peer reviewing for academic journals.  Rahul has delivered public talks at Harvard, Oxford, Cambridge, Cornell, CUNY, UC Irvine, MLA, ACLA, and a number of universities in Canada, Germany, India, Spain, the UK, and the US.

Rahul has published widely in the fields of postcolonial studies, cultural studies, gender/sexuality studies, and non-western and American literary studies, and has also been a prolific journalist and cultural critic for Popmatters.com. He is also connected throughout the Seattle arts & entertainment community, and has sat on Advisory Boards for Tasveer, Trikone, Seattle Art Museum, CHID, and the Northwest Film Forum.  He is working on a book manuscript tentatively titled: “Querying Homes: Diasporic Genealogies of (Be)longing and Nation,” and has published part of a chapter in South Asian Popular Culture (Routledge, 2009).  He is working on publishing other essays, as well as two edited collections.  He is Co-Chair of the 2012 South Asian Literary Association (SALA) convention which be hosted in Seattle in January, and for which the conference proceedings have been solicited for publication.  He loves travel, animals, music, art, literature, challenging people/ ideas, and smart films.  He also freelances for Seattle Gay News (SGN), and has covered events including President Obama’s 2010 speech at UW, Weezer headlining at Bumbershoot, and an interview with Senator Ed Murray (D-WA).