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Jessica Namakkal

Associate Professor of the Practice of International Comparative Studies
International Comparative Studies
Ics Program, Box 90405, Durham, NC 27708-0405
Ics Program, 210-C East Duke Building, Durham, NC 27708-0405
Office hours Fall 2021

Weds 1-3pm  

Overview


My first book Unsettling Utopia: The Making and Unmaking of French(Columbia University Press, 2021) presents a new account of the history of twentieth-century French India to show how colonial projects persisted beyond formal decolonization. Through the experience of the French territories, the book recasts the relationships among colonization, settlement, postcolonial sovereignty, utopianism, and liberation, considering questions of borders, exile, violence, and citizenship from the margins. I demonstrate how state-sponsored decolonization—the bureaucratic process of transferring governance from an imperial state to a postcolonial state—rarely aligned with local desires. The book examines the colonial histories of the Aurobindo Ashram and Auroville, arguing that their continued success shows how decolonization paradoxically opened new spaces of settlement, perpetuating imperial power. Challenging conventional markers of the boundaries of the colonial era as well as nationalist narratives, Unsettling Utopia sheds new light on the legacies of colonialism and offers bold thinking on what decolonization might yet mean.

I am currently working on two new projects, one on decolonizing cults and the other a history of sexuality, race-mixing, and colonialism in the 20th century. 

Current Appointments & Affiliations


Associate Professor of the Practice of International Comparative Studies · 2021 - Present International Comparative Studies, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences
Associate Professor of the Practice of History · 2021 - Present History, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences
Associate Professor of the Practice in Gender, Sexuality & Feminist Studies · 2021 - Present Gender, Sexuality & Feminist Studies, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences

Education, Training & Certifications


University of Minnesota, Twin Cities · 2012 Ph.D.