Kiranpreet Kaur

Kiranpreet Kaur

Department of African Studies and Anthropology
Doctoral researcher

Contact details

Email
kpk629@bham.ac.uk

PhD title: African and Someone Else: Identity, Gaze and Positionality in African Travel Writing      

Supervisors: Dr Rebecca Jones, Dr Asha Rogers, Dr Kate Skinner 
PhD African Studies

Qualifications

  • MPhil (Thesis : Representation of India in British Travel Writing: William Dalrymple, Paul Theroux and V.S.Naipaul)
  • MA English Literature
  • BEd Education

Research

The research project deals with African travel writing about Africa, for the period 1870-1950, by the authors who relate with African identity in some way or the other. My study focuses on the ambivalent identities of the writers constructed by the layers of their connection with Africa/central Africa and the places of/from their emigration/ immigration. For this study, seven authors from different social, political, and cultural backgrounds have been selected with dispersion by a colonial power as a common thread linking them to each other.

Other activities

Professional Memberships

  • Hakluyt Society (Membership No -5605) till Jan 2022
  • International Travel Writers Alliance
  • Sikh Missionary Society

Conference Papers

  • ‘Imagined Fears, (De) constructed Identities:  Representation of slavery in African-authored Travel Narratives’ presented at Borders and Crossing 2019 Conference on Travel Writing at the University of Leicester on July 4-6, 2019.
  • ‘Re-thinking African Decolonisation: Representation of self and the motherland by African Travel writers’ presented at African Places, African Spaces seminar at the University of Leeds on April 16, 2019.
  • ‘Locating Identities: Burden of colonial past in postcolonial travel texts’ presented at Workshop on Postcolonialism organized by The Graduate Centre for Europe at the University of Birmingham on February 18, 2019.
  • ‘I shall not be consumed: A comparative study of Cannibalism in British and African authored travel narratives about Central Africa’ presented at “Bites Here and There”: Literal and Metaphorical Cannibalism across Disciplines held at the University of Warwick on November 17, 2018.
  • ‘Challenged narratives: Endeavours of ancient Egyptian travellers towards the heart of Africa’ presented at 5th Annual Birmingham Egyptology Symposium held at the University of Birmingham on May 10, 2018.
  • ‘Analysing Identity Crisis and Transculturalism’ presented at International Conference of Cultural Nuances, Oct 30-31,2014

ORCID ID

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3629-4242

Publications

  • ‘Re-thinking the Travel History in and Around Africa: A Case of Ancient Egyptian Explorations’ published in The Saharan Journal (2020) Vol1,issue 1[ISSN 2631-3456 (Print) ISSN 2631-3464(Online)]
  • ‘Am I Heard? How does it matter anyways?’ published in Galaxy International Journal of English (March 2014), Vol 3, Issue 2. [ISSN 2278-9529] (Impact :1.080)
  • ‘Do you know me? The study of identity in Manto’s Toba Tek Singh’ published in The Criterion: International Journal in English (April 2014), Vol 5, Issue 2. [ISSN 0976-8165]
  • ‘Analysing Identity Crises and Transculturation through Post- colonial works’ in Research Scholar – An International Refereed e-Journal on Literary Explorations (February 2015) Vol. 3, Issue I. [ISSN: 2320-6101] (Impact: 0.998)
  • ‘Unspoken Words’ published in Pragati English journal, ISSN 0975-4091, Vol13, No 2.