Mahruba Mowtushi, PhD
Dr Mahruba Mowtushi is an associate professor of English at the Department of English and Humanities at Brac University. She completed her BA and MA in English from Queen Mary, University of London, and PhD in comparative literature from King’s College, University of London. Dr Mowtushi writes for Literature, Critique, and Empire Today (formerly, the Journal of Commonwealth Literature), Research in African Literature, and South Asian Review. She has published journal articles, essays, and book chapters on Bengali cinema, street art in Dhaka, South Asian Muslim food culture, South Asian folk literature, and East African literature. Dr Mowtushi works in both English and Bangla and her research and writing interests cut across South Asian history and literature, Bengali/Bangladeshi writing in English, East African literature and more recently, South Asian sound media.
Dr Mowtushi’s first research monograph, Africa in the Bengali Imagination: From Calcutta to Kampala, 1928-1973 (Routledge) will be coming out in late 2024. The book is a reworking of her PhD thesis. This book examines textual representations of Africa in Bengali nationalist and diasporic thought. It is the first full-length study of the development of ‘Africa’ as an idea and historical reality through the writings of five Bengali writers. The work demonstrates how their engagement with Africa played a significant role in the construction of Bengali cultural identity during the period of the Raj, the 1947 Partition of Bengal, and the creation of Bangladesh in 1971.
For the last three years, Dr Mowtushi has developed a project that explores how radio and wireless broadcasting have shaped modern Bengal. While researching for this project in Dhaka, Dr Mowtushi uncovered rare and relatively unknown volumes of the Bangla radio journals, Elan and Betar Bangla, dating from 1947. She also interviewed for this project a number of interesting personages from Bengal some of whom were involved with the radio during the Raj, and the Pakistan era, and who covered wartime radio broadcasts in 1965 and the civil war in 1971. This project is being reworked into a monograph.
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2012-2016 PhD in Comparative Literature
King’s College, University of London
Fully funded by Kings Overseas Research Studentship, UK)
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2010 – 2011 MA in English: Writing in the Modern Age
Funded by the Department of English and Drama
Queen Mary, University of London
Graduated with Distinction
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2007 – 2010 BA (Hons) in English Literature
Queen Mary, University of London
Graduated with First Class Honours
Book/Book Chapters
Mowtushi, M. T. (2024). Africa in the Bengali imagination: From Calcutta to Kampala, 1928-1973. Routledge India.https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429295621
Mowtushi, M., & Mohua, M. (2020). Jackfruit with Tamarind. In C. Chambers (Ed.), Desi Delicacies: Food Writing from Muslim South Asia. Picador, India. https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/claire-chambers/desi-delicacies/978...
Mowtushi, M. T. (2020). The urban experience of displacement: Re-viewing Dhaka through street art and graphic narrative. In K. Daiya (Ed.), Graphic narratives about South Asia and South Asian America: Aesthetics and Politics (1st ed., pp. 227–238). Routledge.
Journals
‘Bangladesh (2024): Compiled and Introduced by Dr Mahruba T Mowtushi’, Literature, Critique and Empire Today, vol. 60 (forthcoming Dec. 2025)
Mowtushi, M. (2025). ‘Speak true to the people’: Radio Pakistan and the making and unmaking of a national soundscape. South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/00856401.2024.2422215
Mowtushi, M. (2024). Bangladesh. Literature, critique, and empire today, 59(4), 486–497. https://doi.org/10.1177/30333962241288382
Mohua, M., & Mowtushi, M. T. (2023). Bangladesh. The Journal of Commonwealth Literature, 58(4), 788–798. https://doi.org/10.1177/00219894231200069
Mowtushi, M., & Chakma, N. (2023). Langa-langnir piritti/ Jenaw badol guli arfitti: Chakma Orature and the Ubogeet. Critical Insights, 2(1), 46–65.
Mowtushi, M. T., & Mohua, M. (2022). Bangladesh. The Journal of Commonwealth Literature, 57(4), 763–771. https://doi.org/10.1177/00219894221126220
Mowtushi, M. T. (2022). Rajat Neogy, transition magazine and the “Asian question” in post-independent Uganda. Issues, 5. https://issues-journal.org/rajat-neogy-transition-magazine-and-the-asian...
Mowtushi, M. T. (2021). The air we breathe, a forgotten colour: Rajat Neogy and the transition poems, 1961-1963. Crossings: A Journal of English Studies, 12, 93–107. https://deh.ulab.edu.bd/sites/default/files/Crossings_Vol12.pdf
Mohua, M., & Mowtushi, M. T. (2021). Bangladesh. The Journal of Commonwealth Literature, 56(4), 523–536. https://doi.org/10.1177/00219894211045811
Mohua, M., & Mowtushi, M. T. (2019). Bangladesh. The Journal of Commonwealth Literature, 54(4), 533–549. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021989419877045
Mowtushi, M. T. (2018). Africa in the Bengali literary and cinematic imagination: Kamaleshwar Mukherjee’s 2013 film adaptation of Bibhutibhusan Bandapadhyay’s African adventure novel, Chander Pahar (1937). South Asian Diaspora, 10(2), 91–107. https://doi.org/10.1080/19438192.2018.1460916
Mowtushi, M. T. (2018). The urban experience of displacement: re-viewing Dhaka through street art and graphic narrative. South Asian Review, 39(1–2), 227–238. https://doi.org/10.1080/02759527.2018.1515694
Mowtushi, M. T. (2015). ’Lost and found: The Akiki Nyabongo archive at the Queen’s College, Oxford. The Queen’s College Library Insight, 16–22. https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/en/publications/lost-and-found-the-akik...
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Sep. 2017- Jun. 2020 Assistant Professor
Department of English and Humanities
University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh
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Jun. 2013 – Sep. 2016 Teaching Associate
Department of Comparative Literature
King’s College London, London, UK
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Sep. 2011 – Aug. 2012 Lecturer
Department of English and Humanities
BRAC University, Dhaka, Bangladesh
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Dec. 2007 – Aug. 2011 Library Assistant
Literature Studies Collection
Senate House Library
University of London, London, UK
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Jun. 2006 – Jul. 2007 Teacher
English Literature
Maple Leaf International School, Dhaka, Bangladesh
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BRAC University and BARD (part of the Open Society University Network initiative, 2020-2021)
Undergraduate courses
: Alternate Worlds: From Yoruban ‘bush of ghosts’ to Martian ‘cat country’ (with OSUN campuses)
: Global Modernisms (with BARD Berlin)
: Alternate Worlds: Fantasy Writing (with European Humanities University
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BRAC University (2011-12, 2020-present)
Undergraduate courses
: Introduction to English Prose
: Survey of English Literature: The Renaissance
: The Urban Novel
: Introduction to Research Methodology
: Introduction to Cultural Studies
: Theories of Fiction
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Master’s courses
: Contemporary Postmodern Writings in English
: Contemporary World Literature in English
: Classical Literary Theories of the Eastern and Western Traditions
: Research Methodology
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University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (2017-2019)
Master’s courses
: Introduction to Literary Theory
: Literature and Ideas
: Research Methodology
: Literature and Travel
: Contemporary World Literature in Translation
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Kings College London (2013-2016)
Undergraduate courses:
: Introduction to Comparative Literature: Theoretical Foundations
: Introduction to Comparative Literature: Methodologies
Guest Lecture
Feb. 2024 (forthcoming)
Invited as a guest lecturer by the South Asia Program at Cornell University to give a talk on the book projects on wireless broadcasting in Bengal as part of the SAP Lecture Series at the Einaudi Center at Cornell. The event is taking place on February 18, 2024.
Paper Presentations
Dec. 2022
Talk on my book project, ‘Africa in the Bengali Imagination from Calcutta to Kampala, 1928-1973’, Department of English and Humanities, The British Library, early December
Mar. 2021
Talk on my book project, ‘Africa in the Bengali Imagination from Calcutta to Kampala, 1928-1973’, Department of English and Humanities, BRAC University, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Jan. 2021
Talk on my first monograph, ‘Africa in the Bengali Imagination from Calcutta to Kampala, 1928-1973’, Department of English, Jahangirnagar University, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Talk on my first monograph, ‘Africa in the Bengali Imagination from Calcutta to Kampala, 1928-1973’, Department of English, Notre Dame University, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Dec. 2020
‘Stories of Persistence from Bangladesh’, at the 2021 MLA Annual Convention, Toronto,
Canada
Webinars in the UK and India on South Asian Muslim Culinary Culture with Claire Chambers, Tabish Khair, et al.
Apr. 2018
‘The air we breathe, a forgotten colour’: A surrealist reading of Rajat Neogy’s early poems’, at the symposium organized by the American Institute of Bangladesh Studies (AIBS) and the Subir and Malini Chowdhury Center for Bangladesh Studies at UC Berkeley.
Dec. 2017
‘“Subodh” Calling: Contemporary Street Art in Dhaka and the Case of Urban Dislocation’, at the ‘Refugees in the Public Imagination: Discourses on Dislocations and Displacements’, hosted by the Department of English and Humanities, University of Liberal Arts, Bangladesh, 22nd-23rd December 2017.
Jun. 2014
‘Akiki Nyabongo and Rabindranath Tagore: Literary Encounters and Exchanges, 1936 - 1937’, at the 2014 Global Studies Association Conference, ‘Cultural Encounters and Global Connectivity’, hosted by York St. John University, 26th-28th June 2014.
Nov. 2013
‘Textual Cannibalization: Early 20th Century Bengali Adventure Fiction of Hemendrakumar Roy and Bibhutibhusan Banerjee’, at the King’s College London Programme in Comparative Literature Annual Graduate Conference, ‘Cannibal Modernisms’, hosted by Kings College London, 7th-8th November 2013
Dec. 2011
‘Masticating and Uttering: Gastronomic Affirmations of Power and Cultural Identity in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and Ayi Kwei Armah’s Two Thousand Seasons’, at the Inter-Asia Cultural Studies Society (IACSS) Conference, ‘Cultural Transformations’, hosted by BRAC University, Dhaka, 17th-18th December 2011.
Panel Organization
Jul. 2023
Chaired panel on ‘Culture, Social Identity and Development’ at the Young Scholars' Seminar (GenEdYSS) at the School of General Education, Brac University. The theme of YSS 2023 was ‘Bangladesh Beyond 50: Quest for Inclusive Development’.
Dec. 2017
Chaired panel on ‘Rootlessness and Displacement’ at the ‘Refugees in the Public Imagination: Discourses on Dislocations and Displacements’, hosted by the Department of English and Humanities, University of Liberal Arts, Bangladesh, 22nd-23rd December 2017
Nov. 2012
Chaired panel on ‘Postcolonial Ekphrases’ at the Comparative Literature International Conference ‘Reframing Ekphrasis’ hosted by Kings College London, 8th November 2012
Workshops
Aug. 2021-Sep. 2023: British Academy Writing Workshop: Pakistan to Bangladesh 1947-1970’
Developed a paper on the history of wireless broadcasting during the Pakistan era. My Paper went through several rounds of reviews, and two presentations.
Jun. 2021: Kings College London
Paper on ‘Multilingualism in Bangladesh’, Workshop on ‘National Multilingualism in the Horn of Africa and South Asia’, organized by Kings College, University of London, 24th-25th June 2021.
April 2018: UC Berkeley
‘Faculty training workshop on writing and publishing in the US’ organized by the American Institute of Bangladesh Studies (AIBS) and the Subir and Malini Chowdhury Center for Bangladesh Studies at UC Berkeley.
January 2018: National University, Bangladesh
Organized and conducted the ‘Teaching African Literature’ workshop for English literature teachers from colleges and universities across Bangladesh.
Administrative Responsibilities
Affiliated with OSUN (Open Society University Network), a global network of institutions designing and teaching courses for international and multi-campus projects in the humanities.
Research Fellowships and Awards
a. Research Fellow at Heidelberg University (September-October 2023): Recipient of the Baden-Württemberg Fellowship, South Asian Institute, Heidelberg University. The Fellowship enabled Dr Mowtushi to work on the drafts of current book manuscripts on wireless broadcasting in East Bengal.
b. Research Fellow at the South Asian Studies Centre at Cornell University (July-December 2019). The Fellowship was awarded to finish research on the recipient’s first book project.
c. Research Fellow at the Subir and Malini Chowdhury Centre, University of California Berkeley, April 2018.
d. The 2015 Postcolonial Studies Association Postgraduate Essay Prize by the Postcolonial Studies Association Convention on July 6, 2015.
e. Fully funded Doctoral scholarship at King’s College, University of London. PhD funded by the King’s Overseas Research Studentship (KORS) in 2012.
f. MA in English, Funded by the Department of English and Drama, Queen Mary, University of London in 2011.
g. Certificate of Merit in recognition of having completed a Bachelor of Arts with First Class Honours in English Literature, 2010.
h. The Graham Rees Memorial Prize for Best English Dissertation of the Year, Queen Mary, University of London, 2010.
i. The Westfield Trust Prize for Outstanding Academic Achievement, Queen Mary, University of London, 2010.
j. The Daily Star Award for Outstanding Results in O&A Level Examinations, 2006. I scored the highest grade internationally in 2005-2006 in English Literature.