Aqdas Aftab

Title/s:  Assistant Professor
Assistant Professor, Affiliate in Women's Studies and Gender Studies

Office #:  Crown Center 427

Phone: 773.508.2246

Email: aaftab@luc.edu

About

My research interests lie at the intersection of postcolonial literatures, decolonial thought, transgender studies, and Black and Dalit studies. My work explores how the imposition of the modern gender binary is central to the processes of racialization and colonialism. I am particularly interested in the quotidian and affective politics of trans of color life. My first book project, tentatively titled Worlding Within: Trans Speculations Beyond the Human reimagines trans of color life beyond the limitations of liberal humanism. This book project examines narratives about lived conditions positioned as subhuman to theorize decolonial ways of conceptualizing trans of color life. Arguing against liberal humanism’s emphasis on the individualized trans body’s visibility, I provide ways of reading that focus on interiority as a strategy to evade the cis gaze of coloniality, subsequently reconceptualizing trans of color life as speculative, spiritual, and relational.

I strive to bring decolonial world-making into the space of the classroom as well. I practice an anti-oppression pedagogy, bringing attention to issues of power and privilege, and building a culture of mutual care and accountability in the classroom. Having learned from Black, Indigenous, and other women of color feminist scholars, I believe that the personal is political is pedagogical; therefore, I curate syllabi that intentionally center historically marginalized writers and scholars. I am particularly invested in teaching my students to analyze aesthetic form, genre and narrative in relation to interlocking systems of power. 

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