AsPr Chandani Lokuge

A former Commonwealth Scholar from Sri Lanka, Chandani Lokuge is affiliated to Australian National University as Associate Professor in Literary Studies and Creative Writing. Previously, from 2001-2020 (incl), she was Associate Professor in Literary Studies and Creative Writing at Monash University. During her tenure at Monash, she was  Deputy Associate Dean International in the Faculty of Arts from 2014-2015 incl (Deputizing for the Dean who helds the position of Associate Dean International) The Monash Higher Degree Research (Creative Writing) programme was set up under her directorship. She was the founding director of the Centre for Postcolonial Writing from 2002-2012, and South Asian International Research Network from 2015-2020. For her various research activities, she has secured funding from Literature Board of the Australia Council, Myer and Ian Potter Foundations, Australia-India Council and Arts Victoria. Her international research appointments include the Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack Visiting Chair in Australian Studies, Freie University, Berlin; Le Studium International Research Chair in Creative Writing, Advanced Studies Institute, France; and Guest Professorships at Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main and Harvard University’s Humanities Centre. Chandani has published 16 books. Her most recent book, Creative Lives: Interviews with South Asian Diaspora Writers (2021), was cco-edited with Christopher Ringrose. An award winning novelist, Chandani is the recipient of a Writer's grant from the Literature Board of the Australia Council and has undertaken several international residencies including at the Chateau de Lavigny, Foundation Ledig-Rowalt, Switzerland. Chandani's interactions with the wider literary community and media include her (invited) participation at Australian and international Writers' Festivals. She was an invited panelist for ABC Radio's Books and Arts Programme: Subcontinental Book Club; her reviews and articles are published in numerous journals. A representative essay: 'Resisitance and activism: The literature of the non-citizen', (pp 15-28) in Citizenship, Law and Literature, eds, Caroline Koegler, Jesper Reddig and Klaus Stierstorfer, Volume 19 in the series 

Law & Literature: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110749830

BA (Hons), MA, PhD

Chandani’s research specializations include creative and critical approaches to the postcolonial, particularly representations of transculturality in travel and tourism, migration and diaspora. Her 16 book publications include 4 literary novels and a book of short stories. Her latest novel, My Van Gogh was published in 2019. Previous novels, Softly as I leave you was awarded Sri Lanka's Godage National Literary Award 2013, and If the moon smiled was shortlisted for New South Wales Premier’s Award 2001. Her creative work has been translated into Greek, French and Hindi. Her short fiction and academic essays are widely anthologized. Her edited academic books include Creative Lives: interviews with South Asian diaspora writers (Ibidem, Columbia University Press (2021) and Mediating Literary Borders: Asian Australian Writing (Routledge, 2018). As Editor of the Oxford Classics Reissues series, she has published 7 critical editions of pioneering Indian women’s writing in English. Among her co-edited special issues of journals are Journal of Postcolonial Writing, Moving Worlds, New Literatures Review and Meanjin.