On Living in the Brown Space Between Black and White
Sameer Pandya is a fiction writer and an interdisciplinary literary and cultural studies scholar whose fiction and scholarship considers the question of cultural dislocation and racial identity among South Asian Americans. His first book “The Blind Writer: Stories and a Novella,” longlisted for the PEN/Open Book Award, follows the lives of first‑ and second‑generation Indian Americans living in contemporary California. His novel “Members Only,” which considers the racial politics of our current moment, was named an NPR Best Books of 2020 and was a finalist for the 90th Annual California Book Award in Fiction. His scholarly essays have been published in the Journal of Asian American Studies, South Asian Popular Culture and Amerasia. Pandya has also published widely in the popular press, with work appearing in The Atlantic, ESPN, Salon, Sports Illustrated, New York Daily News, among other places.
Pandya graduated with highest honors from U.C. Davis and earned his Ph.D. in the Program in Modern Thought and Literature at Stanford University. He is an associate professor of Asian American Studies at U.C. Santa Barbara.
Professor Pandya’s Athenaeum presentation is co-sponsored by the Center for Writing and Public Discourse and celebrates the 10th Anniversary of the Center for Writing and Public Discourse at CMC.
View Video: YouTube with Sameer Pandya
Food for Thought: Podcast with Sameer Pandya