Assistant Professor of English
PhD University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Nineteenth-century British literature, critical theory, creative writing (poetry)
Research/Writing interests
Supritha Rajan's research and teaching interests focus on nineteenth-century British literature, cultural studies, and critical theory. At present, Rajan is particularly concerned with the intersection of economics and ethics both within and outside the nineteenth-century context. Her current research project, which examines Victorian literature alongside nineteenth-century political economy and anthropology, questions traditional understandings of capitalism and the shared disciplinary genealogies of nineteenth-century political economy and anthropology. Rajan also has an interest in moral philosophy and plans to investigate the relationship between the moral emotions and narrative structure in the nineteenth-century novel. In addition to her activities as a scholar and teacher, Rajan is currently at work on a collection of poems.
Selected publications
- "Sacred Commerce: Rites of Reciprocity in Ruskin," in Nineteenth-Century Prose 35.1 (spring 2008), 181-99
- "The Preterite Tense," forthcoming in Poetry Northwest
- "Fabula," forthcoming in Literary Imagination
- "The Cook's Daughter," in Passages North 29.1 (winter/spring 2008)
- "The Orphan of Time," in Poetry Northwest (spring/summer 2007)
- "Widow Country," in Salt Hill 19 (winter 2007)
- "The Abduction of Sita," in Puerto del Sol 41.1 (fall 2006)
- "Inventing the Past," in Notre Dame Review 21 (winter 2006)
- "Lava and Kusa Recite The Ramayana," in Center: A Journal of the Literary Arts 4 (2005)
- "To the Body, Repair," in Carolina Quarterly 56.2-3 (spring/summer 2004)
- "King Dasaratha's Grief," in Marlboro Review 16 (summer/fall 2003)
- "Homecoming," in Southern Indiana Review 9.1 (spring 2002)
- "The Room Above," in Crab Creek Review (summer/autumn 1998)
Selected conference participation
- "Magical Forces: Balancing Interests in Kipling, Edgeworth, and Marshall," North American Victorian Studies Association, Yale University, November 14-16, 2008
- "From Sacred Rights to Sacred Totems: The Laws of Marriage and Property in Victorian Anthropology and Dickens's Dombey and Son," Interdisciplinary Nineteenth-Century Studies Conference, University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, April 2008
- "Domesticating Value: The Making of Household Gods in Trollope's The Way We Live Now," Midwest Conference on British Studies, Indiana University/Purdue University, Indianapolis, October 2006
- Moderator, "The Inimitable I," North American Victorian Studies Association, Purdue University, August/September 2006
- "Sacred Commerce: Rites of Reciprocity in Nineteenth-Century Political Economy and Anthropology," Interdisciplinary Nineteenth-Century Studies Conference, Rutgers University at New Brunswick, March/April 2006
- "The Quest for Renewal: Mary Shelley's Rambles in Germany and Italy," North American Society for Studies in Romanticism Conference, Fordham University, August 2003
Teaching
Courses in nineteenth-century British literature and creative writing
Recent undergraduate courses
- British Literature II (spring 2013)
- Charles Dickens (spring 2013)
- The Nineteenth-Century British Novel (fall 2012)
- The Victorian Novel (fall 2012)
- Forming Victorians (fall 2009)
- Studies in Victorian Literature (spring 2008)
- Poetry Workshop (fall 2011)
- Introduction to Creative Writing (spring 2010)
- Creative Writing: Poetry (fall 2008)
Recent graduate courses
- Victorian Literature and the Sciences of Culture (spring 2011)
Honors and activities
- Richard Hugo Prize, "The Orphan of Time," Poetry Northwest, spring/summer 2007
- Fred and Joan Thomson Award for outstanding dissertation work in eighteenth- or nineteenth-century British studies, Department of English, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2005-06
- Evan Frankel Dissertation Fellowship, Department of English, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, fall 2006
- Pushcart Prize Nomination, "Lava and Kusa Recite The Ramayana," Center: A Journal of the Literary Arts 4 (2005)
- Participant, Mellon Foundation Dissertation Seminar, "History, Memory, and the Literary Text," University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, summer 2005
