Nikhita Obeegadoo, PhD

(She, Her, Hers)

Assistant Professor

Languages and World Literatures

On Leave Until: June 30, 2026
Office: CCS 350
Email: nikhita.obeegadoo@ubc.ca

Research Summary

Oceanic and Archipelagic Studies; Indian Ocean and Caribbean Studies; Critical Race Studies Gender Studies; Contemporary literatures from the Global South, including Africa, South Asia and Latin America; Border Theory and Creolization; Theorising the relationship between History and Literature; Environmental Humanities; Medical Humanities. Research Languages:
French, Spanish, English, Hindi, Mauritian Creole.

Courses & Teaching

World Literatures, French

Degrees

B.S., Computer Science, Stanford University.
B.A., Comparative Literature, Stanford University
Ph.D., Romance Languages & Literatures (French and Spanish), Harvard University

Selected Publications & Presentations

“Les Enjeux de la chair corallienne chez Khal Torabully.” Nouvelles Études Francophones, vol. 38, no. 2, pp. 119–131, 2023.

“Rencontres du postcolonialisme et de l’écocritique.” Special issue of Nouvelles Études Francophones, vol. 38, no. 2, pp. 17-145, 2023. Co-edited with Dr. Mona El-Khoury.

“An Archipelagic Node in Global Migration? The Stakes of Comparison and Irony in Nathacha Appanah’s Tropique de la violence.” Comparative Literature, vol. 74, no. 2, pp. 219–232, June 2022.

Selected Grants & Awards

SSHRC Insight Development Grant – “From coelacanths to mangroves: A multilingual, multispecies and decolonial approach to global archipelagic literature”

UBC Okanagan-Vancouver Collaborative Research Mobility Award (2023) — with Drs. Alice Te Punga Somerville, Candace Galla and Desirée Valadares

Hampton Fund Research Grant (2022-2024)

Mellon ACLS Dissertation Completion Fellowship (2021-2022)

Harvard University Presidential Scholar Fellowship (2016-2022)

Courses and Teaching

WRLD 399K/IGS 543E/WRLD 440: From Forests to Oceans: Ecological Explorations of the “Global South”

FREN 390: Contemporary Francophone Literature: Global Migrations and Transnational Encounters

FREN 470: When Women Reclaim the Blind Spots of History

WRLD 390: Bollywood in Flux