New prof from Penn State joins English Dept

Kyle Nelson Guest Writer

A jack of many trades, Amitava Kumar has made The New York Times Editors’ List and is an accomplished author, teacher, editor, screenwriter, and documentary narrator. He is also one of the newest additions to the Vassar faculty. Kumar is making his debut in the English Department.

Though Kumar has settled on campus, his story is one of movement, not only of body but also of soul. “This is the story of our world: the movement of people and goods,” said Kumar. An expatriate of India, is now embroiled in an odyssey of both an accomplished author and teacher.

As a graduate student at the University of Minnesota, Kumar discovered teaching, and for the next 15 years he taught at Penn State University, the University of Florida and was a visiting professor at Yale University.

“Vassar has a great reputation for nurturing writing,” said Kumar. “I’m interested in seeing how the vibrant literary and critical culture will thrive here.” He teaches a brand of English he dubs “World Bank Lit,” which examines the antagonistic relationship between literature and contemporary globalization.

This semester, Kumar is teaching two English classes: Black Britain and Travel Writing: Writing and War. Black Britain is the history of migration and cultural production with a point-entry at the July 7 London bombings. Writing and War examines literary achievement with the period of time between Sept. 11 bombings and Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Writing and War also uses the first Vassar-sponsored blog site. “I try to teach my students, not only how they can tell their stories, but also how they can invent new forms of writing,” said Kumar.

Kumar’s foremost mission is to empower students through their writing. He instructs students to consider themselves “public intellectuals” who are capable of forging new writing styles as well as imitate classic ones.

“I hope to make my students conscious of how, as critics, they must [juxtapose different moments in time and different realities],” Kumar said.

Between finishing his new documentary, Dirty Laundry, and working on a new novel (“days of anxiety,” said Kumar), he spends his spare time playing with his two year-old daughter, Ila. His wife is currently writing a dissertation at the New School in New York.