People

Faculty Profiles

  • Rudrani Varanasi Sarma
  • Rudrani Varanasi Sarma
  • Doctoral Candidate
  • Instructor
  • At Rutgers Since: 2019
  • Primary Areas of Specialization: African-American & Diaspora Literature, Long 19th Century, Postcolonial Literature
  • Field of Interest: African-American & Diaspora, Caribbean, Critical Race Studies, Drama & Performance Studies, Early American, Global Anglophone, Nineteenth-Century American, Postcolonial, Victorian
  • About:

    Rudrani Sarma is a doctoral candidate from Fort Collins, Colorado specializing in long nineteenth century Black literature from around the world. She is particularly interested in representations of race and racialized bodies in plays, slave narratives, scientific discourse, children's books, and other popular culture materials. 
  • Undergraduate Courses Taught:
    • 358:375 Nineteenth Century Black Literature
    • 359:201 Principles of Literary Study
    • 355:101 Expository Writing
  • Awards:
    • Judith Plotz Emerging Scholar award, Children’s Literature Association, 2024
    • Article award (honorable mention), Children’s Literature Association, 2024
    • Chakra essay award, South Asian Studies Program, 2024
    • Pre-Doctoral Leadership Academy (PLDA) fellow, 2024
    • Cheryl A. Wall essay award, inaugural winner, 2021
    • Emerging Scholars essay award, Mid-America Theatre Conference (MATC), 2020
  • Other Publications:

    Sarma, Rudrani. "Catching Tigers: White Childhood Nostalgia and Constructions of Blackness in Little Black Sambo." Children's Literature, vol. 50, 2022, p. 121-162. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/chl.2022.0009.

    (article link)
  • Membership Affiliations:
    • Modern Language Association, 2019
    • The Society of Nineteenth-Century Americanists, 2021
    • Children's Literature Association, 2022
    • College Language Association, 2023
    • British Women Writers Association, 2024

     
  • Other Dept University Postions:
    • Committee on Bias Awareness and Prevention, 2020-2022 
    • Institute for the Study of Global Racial Justice, 2022-2024
  • Education: A.B. in English Literature, Bryn Mawr College, 2016; M.A. in English Literature, Rutgers University, 2022