Education:
- M.A. Comparative Literature, University of California, Davis (2019-2021)
Thesis: Remembering and Re-telling 1857 and late Mughal rule in early 20th century Urdu literature - B.A. (Hons) English Literature, Kinnaird College for Women, Lahore (2014-2018)
Research Interests:
- Early print publics in colonial North India, late 19th/early 20th c. Urdu women’s reform literature, South Asian history, and feminism.
Biography:
As a Fulbright scholar, Ms. Nimra Farooq has a Masters degree in Comparative Literature from University of California, Davis. Previously, she holds a BA Hons. in English Literature from Kinnaird College.
Her Masters thesis, titled “Remembering and Re-telling 1857 and late Mughal rule in early 20th century Urdu texts”, explores the ways in which some 20th century Urdu texts contest institutional narratives of 1857 and create alternative spheres of remembering and commemorating the late Mughal rule. Employing pre-modern literary forms, this selection of 20th century Urdu print is read as a striking deviation from the predominantly reformist current of the time and emerges as an unlikely adversary to colonial historical accounts- posing valuable insights into intergenerational lore, collective memory, and social imagination.
Selected Awards
- Fulbright Masters scholarship (2019-2021)
- Finalist, Rhodes scholarship (2018)
- Gold Medalist, Kinnaird College (2018)
