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Ranjana Khanna

Professor of English
English
Duke Box 90015, Durham, NC 27708
304GH Allen Bldg, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708
Office hours Spring '25 Semester:

(304GH Allen)  

Overview


Ranjana Khanna is Professor of English, Women's Studies, and the Literature Program at Duke University. She works on Anglo- and Francophone Postcolonial theory and literature, and Film, Psychoanalysis, and Feminist theory. She has published widely on transnational feminism, psychoanalysis, and postcolonial and feminist theory, literature, and film. She is the author of Dark Continents: Psychoanalysis and Colonialism (Duke University Press, 2003) and Algeria Cuts: Women and Representation 1830 to the present (Stanford University Press, 2008.) She has published in journals like Differences, Signs, Third Text, Diacritics, Screen, Art History, positions, SAQ, Feminist Theory, and Public Culture. Her current book manuscripts in progress are called: Asylum: The Concept and the Practice and Technologies of Unbelonging.

Current Appointments & Affiliations


Professor of English · 2008 - Present English, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences
Director of the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute · 2018 - Present John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute, University Institutes and Centers
Professor of Literature · 2008 - Present Literature, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences
Professor of Gender, Sexuality & Feminist Studies · 2018 - Present Gender, Sexuality & Feminist Studies, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences

In the News


Published February 22, 2023
Ranjana Khanna Reappointed as Franklin Humanities Institute Director
Published February 17, 2022
Comments Sought in Regular Review of Franklin Humanities Institute Director Ranjana Khanna
Published August 12, 2021
Four HBCU Humanities Scholars to Collaborate with Trinity College Faculty and Students

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Recent Publications


Freud’s “Mourning and Melancholia”

Chapter · January 1, 2024 This chapter on melancholy/melancholia addresses the use of these categories over the last 30 years in the analysis of cultural difference associated with race, gender, and sexuality. In particular, I will address the different trajectories that emerge in ... Full text Cite

Touching the corpse: Reading Sinan Antoon

Journal Article New Literary History · March 1, 2020 Full text Cite
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Recent Grants


American Council of Learned Societies Emerging Voices Fellow

FellowshipPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by American Council of Learned Societies · 2022 - 2024

Seminars in Historical, Global, and Emerging Humanities

Public ServicePrincipal Investigator · Awarded by Andrew W. Mellon Foundation · 2014 - 2018

Promoting International Perspectives at the Feminist Theory Workshop

Public ServicePrincipal Investigator · Awarded by Josiah Charles Trent Memorial Foundation · 2009 - 2010

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Education, Training & Certifications


University of York (United Kingdom) · 1993 Ph.D.
University of York (United Kingdom) · 1988 B.A.