Malvika Nair

PhD Hispanic Studies

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/malvikanair.bsky.social.

About

I am a PhD student in Hispanic Studies at the University of Warwick. My research is supervised by Fabienne VialaLink opens in a new window from the School of Modern Languages and Cultures and Rashmi VarmaLink opens in a new window from English and Comparative Literary Studies.

Research

My PhD thesis is a comparative literature project that studies the representation of race and caste in Cuban and Indian poetry respectively, through the works of the progressive feminist poets Nancy Morejón (from Cuba) and Meena Kandasamy (from India). It seeks to examine the representation of, and the comparative aspects between race and caste, and their relationship with gender in the context of Latin America (the Caribbean more specifically) and India through their representation in the chosen works. My thesis seeks to answer the following questions: firstly, how does the poetry of Morejón represent the condition of Black women in Cuba and their resistance against racism? Secondly, how does Kandasamy represent Dalit women and their resistance to caste in her poetry? Thirdly, what are the comparable aspects in the struggles that both these groups of women face? My doctoral research bases itself on critical scholarship to argue that the shared aspects of the resistance by both groups of women lend to the construction of a transnational solidarity that ‘bridges’ the two life-worlds.

Research Interests

Representations of race and caste
Resistance and solidarity in literature
Afro-Latin American studies
Feminism in the Global South
Latin American literature

Teaching

2022-23: I have worked as a Teaching Assistant in the Department of Spanish and Latin American Studies in Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi where I taught courses on Latin American politics in the 20^th century, Latin American literature in the 19^th and 20^th century, and Spanish literature in the medieval age.

Peer-reviewed Publications

“La otredad y los espacios: Las heterotopias en El Hereje.” Hispanic Horizon, vol. 2019, no. 35, 2023, pp. 162-173.
“You’re the Millstones Around my Neck: Women Negotiating Patriarchal Domestic Spaces and Identities in Nada and The God of Small Things.” Global Media Journal, vol. 13, no. 1, 2021, pp. 1-17.

Other Publications

“There will be Rapping about the Dark Times: Political Hip Hop from Chile and India: Examining the Music of Ana Tijoux and Sumit Roy.” In Nomadic Subterfuges in Indo-Luso-Hispanic Narratives, Indrani Mukherjee et al. (eds), Kolkata: Dungri Publications, 2024.
“The Third Root of Latin America: Notes on the Field of Afro-Latin American Studies”, in C. Edwards & A. Pitre (Eds.) New Perspectives in Africana Studies, Volume 2, San Francisco State University Press. (Forthcoming).

Conference Presentations

“¡Soy fuerza, fulgor y vida!”: Cuestiones de identidad y resistencia en la poesía de Aleida Vázquez at the 9th International Conference of Critical Geographies, Mexico City in October 2023 [Virtual mode].
“¡Justicia a mi identidad, justicia a mis derechos!”: Reading select poems of contemporary Afromexican activist-poets as tools of resistance against racism, patriarchy and social invisibility at the Consortium for the Humanities and the Arts South-East England (CHASE) Feminist Symposium, at Birkbeck, University of London, in June 2023 [Virtual mode].
Black, Woman, Favelada: Benedita and the Afro-Brazilian Experience at the VII International Conference on Hispanism, Jawaharlal Nehru University in October 2022.
Las Mujeres Negras: The Life-worlds of Afrocubanas in the poetry of Nancy Morejón, Graduate Conference, Jawaharlal Nehru University in May 2022.

Scholarships and Awards

Chancellor’s International Scholarship at the University of Warwick, 2024-28.
Doctoral Fellowship, awarded by the Humanities Research Centre, University of Warwick, 2025-26.
Junior Research Fellowship, awarded by the University Grants Commission, India, 2019-23.
Rafael Iruzubieta Award, awarded to the student securing the highest CGPA in M.A. Spanish at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India. Consisting of a citation and a cash prize of INR 50,000 (roughly £450). 2022.

Qualifications

M.Phil in Spanish, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India.
M.A. in Spanish, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India.
B.A. (Honours) in English, The English and Foreign Languages University, Shillong, India.

Certifications

Certificate in Afro-Latin American Studies, Afro-Latin American Research Institute, Harvard University, April 2023.
Certified for B2 level in the DELE examination, which is an official title certifying the degree of competence and mastery of the Spanish language, granted by Spain's Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport, January 2023