Spotlight on... Dr Pavan Manogaran

Dr Pavan Manogaran This week we meet Dr Pavan Manogaran, Research Fellow in Racism, Racialisation and Gender at the Sarah Parker Remond Centre. Here, he chats to us about writing a play and his upcoming monograph on postcolonial nationalism. What is your role and what does it involve?. I'm a Research Fellow in Racism, Racialisation and Gender at the Sarah Parker Remond Centre for the Study of Racism and Racialisation. My role is primarily research-focused - I work with contemporary literature, critical theory and cultural studies to analyse postcolonial nationalism and its entanglements with race, gender and sexuality. But part of my role also involves working with the SPRC's co-directors Professor Paul Gilroy and Professor Tariq Jazeel on centre activities, and I'm currently organising a seminar series on the textual histories of race and colonialism. How long have you been at UCL and what was your previous role?. Four months now. Previously, I was a PhD candidate at the Department of English at King's College London and an Associate Lecturer at Birkbeck College. where I was teaching at the Department of Psychosocial Studies. What working achievement or initiative are you most proud of?. I don't know if necessarily proud but certainly one I'm quite fond of is a play I wrote a couple of years ago called Left . It was this absurd comedy about a left-handed kid whose parents zealously tried to convert into being right-handed. Because the world's built for right-handed people isn't it?