South Asian Language Programs, Department of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies
FACULTY:
Gabriela Nik. Ilieva, Clinical Professor, Director. Bio
Tahira Naqvi, Clinical Professor. Bio
Rajni Bhargava, Assistant Clinical Professor. Bio
Bindeshwari Aggarwal, Retired Senior Hindi Lecturer
FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING ASSISTANTS
2019-2020
- Hindi Urdu: Sarfaraz Farooque serves as a Cultural Ambassador for India in the USA. He is pursuing his Ph.D. in English literature from Lucknow University, Lucknow, India. His research focuses on the relationship between history and literature. His research interest areas also include literary and critical theories of 20th century, Indian English fiction and use of English literature in EFL/ESL teaching.
Bengali Hindi: Utsab Ray serves as a Cultural Ambassador for India in the USA. He is a senior doctoral research candidate at the Liberal Arts Department of Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad, India. He focuses on visual aesthetics in anglophone modernist literature and in Indian poetry, English and Bengali language and literature teaching, post-colonial literature, comparative literature, and contemporary subcontinental popular music.
2018-2019
Bengali Hindi: Pritesh Chakroborty serves as a Cultural Ambassador for India in the USA. He is an Assistant Professor at Acharya Sukumar Sen Mahavidyalaya – The University of Burdwan. He completed his Ph.D. in 2019. His research is on the narratives in comic books and the new cognitive processes used by the readers of the 21st century.
2017-2018:
Hindi: Suman Rana serves as a Cultural Ambassador for India in the USA. She was an Assistant Professor at College of Vocational Studies, University of Delhi. She completed her Master’s degree and M.Phil. from University of Delhi. The focus of her research is on the issues of violence and the resultant trauma within the context of the South Asian sub-continent with specific focus on Partition Literature.
Urdu: Arjmand Bano serves as a Cultural Ambassador for Pakistan in the USA. She has completed her M.Phil. in English Literature from the Government College University, Lahore and has a Post-graduate diploma in English Language Teaching from the same institute. She has worked as a lecturer and senior lecturer in English at several universities in Lahore.
Bangla: Md Mamunur Rashid serves as a Cultural Ambassador for Bangladesh in the USA. He is performing his research in educational communication and technology where he works to develop effective educational tools to bring innovation in education. He is also designing a developmental project aiming at sustainable solutions to social problems with the help of media and technology.