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Personal Statement
leads live on after usurping male authority, an ending that the Hollywood film foreclosed. Using bell
hooks theories of women of color feminism, I cast mixed-race Hispanic and Indian women as the leads,
a gesture that allowed for the interrogation of white feminist subjectivity. In revising patriarchal
narratives and deconstructing constructs of femininity, I exposed the mechanics of masculinity,
femininity, their dialectic relations, and constructed nature. In my second film production, a raperevenge horror film, I related my discussion of gender and ethnicity to the nation. Employing the
Japanese motif of the onryou, an avenging female spirit, and drawing on Edward Saids critique of
Orientalism, my film examined notions of Otherness and monstrosity. Further, this film spoke to the
gendered nature of social and state violence that links the body of the female to the body politic. My
final film project was a short documentary that looked at independent news media, interviews, and
blogs through the lens of critical race theory to unmask the hypocrisy of mainstream liberal politics.
Specifically I critiqued the Human Rights Commission, for its lack of intersectionality when it comes to
disenfranchised groups. For example, I focused on the Commissions agenda of marriage equality that
seeks to bring LGBTQ groups into the fold of white-supremacist and gender normative structures. In
exploring alternative media, I learned how modes of disseminating news and entertainment are central
to decolonization and resisting hegemony.
The gendered nature of violence, masculinist nature of imperial ideology, and contested trope
of the nation were key concepts of my thesis, Rewriting Gendered Spaces within the Nation which
examined the novels, A Clear Light of Day by Anita Desai and No Telephone to Heaven by Michelle Cliff.
This paper analyzed how female postcolonial authors textually subverted male-centered narratives and
nationalisms. In disputing patriarchal nationalism and the imperial ideology of which it is emblematic,
my discussion sought to recuperate the problematic gendered aspects of national consciousness that
Fanons scholarship brought to light. Analyzing postcolonial literature in conjunction with critical theory
was crucial in developing my interdisciplinary, intersectional approach to the study of cultural
production. I realized that abstract knowledge of psychology and theory are inadequate for
understanding the human pain of exploitation and abuse. This thesis is an entry point for the ideas I
hope to continue exploring in graduate school.
As a graduate student, my dissertation will implement a women of color analytic to contribute
to new theorizations about nationalism and feminism with regard to South Asian subjectivities. I will
analyze and critique the circulation of contemporary texts, media, and global events such as the recent
embrace of Malala Yousafzai (Nobel Prize co-recipient) for the ways they propagate Western notions of
liberalism and feminism and ultimately work to consolidate western hegemony. I am interested in
studying western representations as well as globalized imaginaries of South Asian women in a post9/11 context. By deconstructing neoliberal (mis)representations that confine Third world subjects into
essentialist and exotisized ideas of personhood, I seek to produce counter-hegemonic work that
maintains the cultural integrity and oft-elided humanity of marginalized groups.
Among the faculty at UCLA with whom I would most like to work are Michelle Erai, Grace Hong,
Purnima Mankekar, and Sarah Haley. Dr. Erais work on discourses of postcolonial violence bears
directly on my interest in narratives like those of Malala Yousafzai. Dr. Hongs book, The Ruptures of
American Capital: Women of Color Feminism and the Culture of Immigrant Labor dialogs with my thesis
as it deals with globalization and the exoticization of the Other. I am especially interested in Dr. Hongs
intersectional feminist analysis and her discussion of different modes of resistance in her book Strange
Affinities: The Gender and Sexual Politics of Comparative Racialization. My abiding interest in visual
cultures, and their importance to my scholarship would also be greatly enhanced by working with Dr.
Mankekar, whose important book on mass media and identity/nation formation dovetails with my focus
on gender and nation. Finally, Dr. Haleys historical focus on women and social movements will be
indispensable in thinking through the mobilization of social movements in my work. These esteemed
Personal Statement
scholars have greatly influenced my decision to begin my graduate education at UCLA. Once I obtain my
PhD, my goal is to continue to conduct research, make films, and teach at a research institute.