Sundhya Walther

I came to Manchester in September 2019 from Lancaster University, where I was a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Postdoctoral Fellow. My research focuses on multispecies interactions in postcolonial literature, with a special concentration in contemporary South Asia. My book Multispecies Modernity: Disorderly Life in Postcolonial Literature (Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2021), locates techniques of identity formation in relationships between animals and humans in Indian writing from the late colonial period to the present day.

I am currently the PGR Director for EACW.

Semester 2 Office Hours: Tuesday 1-2; Friday 2-3

My research focuses on representations of multispecies living in contemporary South Asian literature and culture. My book Multispecies Modernity: Disorderly Life in Postcolonial Literature, examines the way that animal-human intimacy in the iconic spaces of postcolonial India disturbs dominant narratives of identity and nationhood.

I am currently interested in ideas of denizenship as a status that breaches species boundaries. This project looks at representations of migrancy, incarceration, urbanisation, and climate crisis. At the moment I am also working on discourses of cow protection in Hindu nationalist politics. 

I have broader interests in postcolonial literature and theory, animal studies, interdisciplinary South Asian studies, and environmental humanities. 

PhD, English and South Asian Studies, University of Toronto

MA, English, University of Toronto

BA (Hons), English and History, University of Toronto