Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra
Dr. Ananya Saha
Assistant Professor, Humanities and Social Science
PhD, Centre for English Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
Contact Address
Permanent Address Kolkata-700084
Local Address BIT Mesra Campus Ranchi-835215
Phone (Office) NA
Phone Residence NA
Email Id ananya.saha@bitmesra.ac.in
Joined Institute on : 11-Mar-2024

  Work Experience
 
Teaching : 5 Years

Research : 6 Years

Individual: 4 Years

  Professional Background

Educational Qualification

  • (2019-20) PhD, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Centre for English Studies, New Delhi.
  • (2013) MA, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Centre for English Studies, New Delhi.
  • (2011) BA, English Honours, Department of English, St. Xavier’s College (Autonomous), University of Calcutta.

Teaching Experience

  • (2020-2024) Assistant Professor, Department of English, St. Xavier’s University, Kolkata
  • (2019-2020) Assistant Professor, Department of English, Techno India University, Kolkata

Administrative Responsibilities

  • (2024-) Faculty Coordinator, Alumni and International Relations, BIT Mesra
  • (2021-2024) Faculty Convenor, St. Xavier’s University Literary Society
  Research Areas
 
  • Culture Studies and Popular Culture
  • Manga/Comics Studies/Graphic Narratives
  • Soft Power and Globalization
  • Translation Studies
  • Digital Humanities
  • Literature, Culture and AI
  Award and Honours
 

Fellowships

  • (2018) DAAD BMBF Visiting Fellowship, under the aegis of “Literary Cultures of the Global South”, University of Tübingen, Germany. 
  • (2016-17) UGC SAP DSA (I) Project Fellowship, Centre for English Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru Uiversity.
  • (2017) Julius Maximilians Universitat Würzburg and Jawaharlal Nehru University, UGC- DAAD-IGP Winter School on “Literature in a Globalized World”,  

Others

  • (2024) Invited Speaker, Manipal Academy of Higher Education (Mangalore). Delivered a lecture titled “Manga Mayhem: Pursuing Comics Studies in the Indian Academia”. 
  • (2024) Invited Speaker, “Women in Comics”, for the exhibition titled “100 Years of Bengal Comics”, at Kolkata Centre for Creativity, a non-profit organization for the promotion of arts and culture. 
  • (2023) Invited Speaker, Summer “Multiversity” Lecture Series, Texas AM University (Doha Campus). Delivered a lecture titled “Manga, Soft Power, and Globalization”.
  • (2023) Chaired a session on “Comics form, Narratives, and Imaginaries of Well Being”, in the Conference titled “Better Living Through Comics”, University of Cambridge, hosted by International Graphic Novel & Comics and the International Bande Dessinée Society.
  • (2023) Invited speaker, National Conference titled “Emerging Trends in Using Language and Literature in Millennial Classroom to  Foster Effective Communication”, NSHM Knowledge Campus, Kolkata.
  Publications
 

Upcoming

  • Article titled “Indomanga: Mangaesque Art from the Global South” in an edited volume, Comics, Methodologies, Global South, under negotiation with an international academic publisher. 
  • Chapter entitled “Of Otherworldly Appetites: Locating Women in the Crossover of Gourmet- Fantasy Mangaverse”, in an edited volume, Women’s Imaginary Cooking and Appetites,under negotiation with an international academic publisher.
  • Chapter entitled “A World Beyond the Self: Mythopoesis in Select Isekai Anime from Three Decades”, in an edited volume, Exploring Isekai: Mapping World Through Anime and Manga, to be published by Bloomsbury Academic. 
  • Co-Edited Volume, tentatively titled Comics, Catastrophe, Conservation: Reflections on Survivalism and Sustainability, under the initial stages of negotiation with an international academic publisher. 

Published

  • (2024) Saha, A. “Debunking the Normative: Queerness vis-à-vis “Magic Boys” in Fantasy Anime”. In C. S. Alexander (ed.) Black Witches and Queer Ghosts: Race, Gender, and Sexual Orientation in Teen Supernatural Serials, published by Rowman and Littlefield, ISBN: 978-1-66692-675-0. 
  • (2024) Saha, A. “Towards an Ethos of ‘Aqua Graphic’: Representation of Marine Ecology in Select Visual Narratives.” CLOSURE: Kieler e-Journal für Comicforschung, 10, University of Kiel. ISSN 2363-7765. 
  • (2023) Saha, A. ““Playing the Field, Performing Paradox: Looking at the Rites of Passage of Identity in Japanese Football through the Lens of Manga and Anime”. St Xaviers University Kolkata Journal of Interdisciplinary Research (SXUKJIR 1). Presented at the “The Beautiful Game: The Poetics and Aesthetics of Soccer in a Transnational Perspective”, University of Basel. Swiss Association for North American Studies. ISSN 2584-055X.
  • (2021) Co-edited a book titled Japanese Horror: New Critical Approaches to History, Narratives and Aesthetics, published by Rowman and Littlefield, ISBN 1793647054 / 9781793647054.
  • (2019) Saha, A. “Manga and the Impressionable Child: Reinventing Religiosity in Doujinshi”. In N. Sethi and A.Saha, (eds.), Trajectories of Popular  Expression: Forms, Histories, Contexts. Aakar Books. ISBN 978-93-5002-575-8.
  • (2018) Saha, A. “Manga as ‘Mukokuseki’? ‘Prosumer’ Hybridism in Original Non-Japanese Manga.” Orientaliska Studier, 156. Presented at the “Manga, Comics and Japan: Area Studies as Media Studies” conference at Stockholm University. ISSN 0345-8997.
  • (2018) Saha, A. “Negotiating the Impulses of Cyber/Eco-Queer in the Japanese Sci-Fi Anime: The Scope of Technology vis à- vis Gendered Identity”. Indraprasth, Guru Govind Singh Indraprastha University Journal. ISSN 2278-7208.
  • (2018) Saha, A. “Why so Straight? Exploring the ‘Chronotope’ of Slash/Fandom in Harry Potter Doujinshi Manga”. Gnosis, 4(3). ISSN 2394- 0131.
  • (2017) Saha, A. “Journeys and Meta-Journeys: Reading Travel Anew in Sree Parabat’s Novels in Motion”. Lapis Lazuli: An International Literary Journal, 7(2).  ISSN 2249-4529.
  • (2017) Saha, A. “The ‘Inner Emigre’: Reading Heaney’s (Un) belonging through the Metonymy of the ‘Bog’”. Muse India, 75, Oct. ISSN 0975-1815. 
  • (2017) Saha, A. “The Witch and the Uhamiri: Exploring Nuances of Female Bonding in A Mercy and Efuru”. Dibrugarh University Journal of English Studies, 26. ISSN 0975-5659.
  • (2017) Saha, A. “Visualizing the Gaikokujin Alien: Graphic Hybridity in Popular Cultural Manga Narratives”. Appropriations, Bankura Christian Mission College, 12. ISSN 0975-1521.

Conference/Seminar

  • (2023) Presented a paper titled “Machine Learned Manga: The Role of AI in “Culture Industry””, JSA -ASEAN Annual Conference, Chiangmai University, Thailand.
  • (2023) Presented a paper titled “The Power of Kawaii: Medical Infotainment in Contemporary Manga”, in the Conference titled “Better Living Through Comics”, at University of Cambridge, hosted by International Graphic Novel & Comics and the International Bande Dessinée Society.
  • (2022) Saha, A. “Glimpses of the Gaikokujin: Engaging with the ‘Outsider’ in Modern Manga”. In Migration and Transition. Mechademia, Los Angeles.
  • (2022) Saha, A. “Bullies with Backstories: Addressing Ijime in Japanese Mangas from the Last Three Decades”. In Picturing the Perpetrator in Comics and Graphic Narratives. University of Bucharest.
  • (2017) Saha, A. “Slam it Out: Exploring Nuances of Performed Protest through the Rise of Slam Poetry Culture in Urban Indian Spaces”. In Literary Cultures of Global South. Tübingen University.
  • (2016) Saha, A. “Playing the Field, Performing Paradox: Looking at the Rites of Passage of Identity in Japanese Football through the Lens of Manga and Anime”. In The Beautiful Game: The Poetics and Aesthetics of Soccer in a Transnational Perspective, Basel University, Switzerland. Swiss Association for North American Studies. 
  • (2013) Saha, A. “Dimensions of the Fantastical in Miyazaki: Reading Chihiro’s Quest in Spirited Away”. In Other Worlds in Literature: Fantasy and Science Fiction. University Grants Commission, Special Assistance Programme, Centre for English Studies. 
  • (2013) Saha, A. “Living in Translation: The Polemics of Diasporic Experience in The Namesake”. In IndiaAssociation for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies. University of Lucknow.

Certification

  • (2023) Two-week refresher course on “Research Methodology and Data Analysis” at the Teaching Learning Centre, Ramanujan College, Delhi, under the aegis of Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya Mission on Teachers and Teaching
  • (2023) IP awareness training program, NIPAM with St. Xavier’s University, Kolkata.
  • (May- June 2021) “Faculty Induction Programme” at theTeaching Learning Centre, Ramanujan College, Delhi, under the aegis of Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya Mission on Teachers and Teaching.
  • (2020) Faculty Development Programme on "Quality Policy Deployment and Outcome based Education", conducted by Techno India University, West Bengal, E ICT and NIT Patna.
  • (2017) Global Initiative of Academic Networks (GIAN MHRD), in a course titled “Twentieth Century Narratives: Five African American Practitioners”, taught by Professor Amritjit Singh, University of Ohio.

 

  Member of Professional Bodies
 
  • Member, Japanese Art History Forum (JAHF)
  • Member, IACLALS
  Member, Editorial Board
 
  • (2019) Peer Reviewer, Feminist Encounters: A Journal of Critical Studies in Culture and Politics.
  • (2019) Peer Reviewer, Language, Literature, and Interdisciplinary Studies