Gaurav Desai

Frederick G.L. Huetwell Professor of English
University of Michigan

Dr. Desai's research focuses on African literature, culture, and the law, as well as postcolonial studies, among other subjects. He is the author of Commerce with the Universe: Africa, India, and the Afrasian Imagination (2013), Subject to Colonialism: African Self-Fashioning and the Colonial Library (2001). and the editor of several books and special issues of journals, including Teaching the African Novel (2009) and Postcolonialisms: An Anthology of Cultural Theory and Criticism (2005). Most recently, he coedited Critical Terms for the Study of Africa (2018) and Approaches to Teaching the Works of Amitav Ghosh (2018). He currently serves as the Second Vice-President for the Modern Language Association, and will assume the presidency of that organization in 2028. He is also the recipient of several awards and fellowships, including a residential fellowship at the National Humanities Center, a Rockefeller Foundation award for a residency at the Bellagio Center in Italy, a visiting fellowship at Cambridge University, and an ACLS Burkhardt Fellowship for his research.