Dr Sita Balani

Biography

Research Interests

• Cultural Studies
• Contemporary Britain
• Postcolonial Theory
• ‘Sexuality’
• ‘Race’

My research seeks to unpack the impact of imperial histories on contemporary culture. My PhD thesis, entitled ‘Identity After History: Desiring Authenticity in Contemporary British Culture’, coined the term ‘identity- talk’ – via Mahmood Mamdani’s ‘culture talk’ – to explore the legacies of imperialism within culture, community and identity in Britain today. Specifically, I argue that the constructs of race and sexuality formed through colonial science and Enlightenment philosophy continue to act as the unacknowledged foundation for contemporary ideas about the self. I show how this colonial legacy shapes Islamophobia, as well as other forms of racism. To make this claim, I bring together contemporary novels and plays with texts that are not as often considered in literary studies – reading Alan Hollinghurst in dialogue with British Asian misery memoirs, and exploring contemporary theatre by Chris Goode and Vinay Patel through close readings of David Cameron’s speeches. I posit that this approach shows the promiscuity of identity-talk and the ways it is deployed in the ‘War on Terror’. This research forms the basis of my first monograph. In addition, I am looking into the legacies of Black British feminism, through the publishing cooperative, Sheba Feminist Publishing. 

Teaching

I teach cultural studies and critical theory, with a particular focus on queer and postcolonial theory in a UK context.