Amar Deshpande

Undergraduate Student Researcher

Amar Deshpande is a 2nd year undergraduate English major at UCSB. His academic focus is on modernist and post-modernist literature, critical theory, and Asian American studies. He is passionate about social justice and about his creative endeavors. He spends most of his time making music, making art, and reading.

Brenda Tan

Undergraduate Student Researcher

Brenda Tan recently graduated from UCSB with a Bachelor’s degree in English, Writing and Literature, and History of Art and Architecture with an emphasis in Museum Studies. She recently finished writing her senior thesis on subjectivity and authorship in Italo Calvino’s If on a winter’s night a traveler and Ben Lerner’s 10:04. She is currently in the process of applying to PhD Programs in English and is interested in Modernism, Postmodernism, and critical theory.

Ellie Lim

Undergraduate Student Researcher

Jessica Johal

Undergraduate Student Researcher

Jessica Johal recently graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) with a B.A. in English and Poverty, Inequality, and Social Justice. After receiving her degree, she became an Executive Assistant and is now looking to explore further options.

Sophia Lovell

Undergraduate Student Researcher

Sophia is a fourth-year English major at UCSB, specializing in Creative Writing. They love to put just about everything down on pen and paper- curled up in coffee shop corners- from poetry to evaluating current issues, to chicken-scratching grocery lists. When Sophia isn’t writing, they spend their time curled up with their dog, painting with friends, and trying to keep their houseplants alive.

Maile Young

Graduate Supervisor

Maile Young is a Ph.D student in the Department of English at UCSB. Their research focuses on Asian American literature and culture, the spatial politics of disease, and bioecology. Before beginning graduate study, they received a B.S. in Public Health and Literature from American University in Washington, DC.

Swati Rana

Faculty Supervisor

Swati Rana is Associate Professor in the Department of English and affiliate faculty in the Department of Asian American Studies and the Comparative Literature Program. She specializes in Asian American literature, comparative race and ethnic studies, and transnational American studies. Her research focuses on the relationship between literary and social forms, exploring how ethnic literature represents the complexities of minority identity and how ethnic writers creatively negotiate and refigure pressing social questions.