Meher Manda is a poet, short story writer, journalist, editor and educator originally from Mumbai, India, and currently based in New York City and Providence. After earning an undergraduate degree in advertising and journalism from the University of Mumbai, she earned her MFA in Fiction at the College of New Rochelle where she was the founding editor-in-chief of the literary journal The Canopy Review. As a journalist, she writes about the intersection of culture and politics, with a focus on South Asian works of art. Her work can be found at The Juggernaut, Bustle, Scroll, Firstpost and elsewhere. She is the author of the chapbook of poems Busted Models (No, Dear / Small Anchor Press, 2019) and her poetry, fiction and nonfiction have appeared and are forthcoming in Catapult, Epiphany, The Margins, Sportklet, Hobart Pulp, Cosmonauts Avenue, Los Angeles Review, Barren Magazine, Peach Magazine and elsewhere. She has been nominated for Best New Poets 2020 and Best of the Net Anthology 2020 and has received fellowships and grants from DreamYard, Teachers & Writers Collaborative and J.N. Tata Endowment for Higher Education. She has been featured and interviewed at Brooklyn Poets, Catharsis Magazine, Hyperallergic, Asia Art Tours, The Polis Project, Lumina Journal, The Hindu and elsewhere.
As an educator, Manda has taught poetry and fiction workshops at the College of New Rochelle and has been a teaching artist with Community-Word Project, Teachers & Writers Collaborative, USDAN, the 92Y and The Cooper Union Saturday Program. She has also taught concentrated creative writing craft workshops at Manhattanville College, Queens Library and the Langston Hughes House. Her teaching philosophy is rooted in writing for justice, inclusion of diverse literary voices and the understanding that writing is an art form that continually informs and is informed by contemporary politics.
She is the writer behind the political web-comic Jamun Ka Ped, which she co-creates with Mayukh Goswami and a collective member at the worker-owned, indie publisher Radix Media. She is currently at work on a political graphic novel about India and a short story collection. She is the co-parent of a tuxedo cat named Azad.
Courses
Fall 2024 Courses
LAS E215-01 - INTRO TO CULTURE CRITICISM
LevelUndergraduate
UnitLiterary Arts and Studies
Subject Literary Arts and Studies
Period Fall 2024
Credits 3
FormatSeminar
Mode In-Person
Start date
End date
LAS E215-01
INTRO TO CULTURE CRITICISM
LevelUndergraduate
UnitLiterary Arts and Studies
Subject Literary Arts and Studies
PeriodFall 2024
Credits3
FormatSeminar
ModeIn-Person
Start and End2024-09-04 to 2024-12-11
Times: M | 1:10 PM - 4:10 PMInstructor(s): Meher Divya MandaLocation(s): Washington Place, Room 302Enrolled / Capacity: 15Status: Closed
SECTION DESCRIPTION
A review - nay, a good review, the kind you are sure to find in the art, entertainment, and culture sections of reputed newspapers and magazines, certainly engages with the study & makeup of the art work it is reviewing, but is also able to consider it as a palpable cultural production existing in the same universe as TikTok videos and endless Twitter discourse. It revels in and pokes fun at fandom, appreciates influence and also legacy, and is able to transition easily from critical theory to breathless pop culture breakdown. In this class, we will understand what makes for a good review, while also learning to fashion a parallel writing project as critics of the craft that we're developing. This is a class designed to develop the artist as a serious discerner of craft and a writer having fun with wordplay.
Elective
LAS E392-01 - BOLLYWOOD CALLING: INDIA THROUGH THE LENS OF POPULAR CINEMA
LevelUndergraduate
UnitLiterary Arts and Studies
Subject Literary Arts and Studies
Period Fall 2024
Credits 3
FormatLecture
Mode In-Person
Start date
End date
LAS E392-01
BOLLYWOOD CALLING: INDIA THROUGH THE LENS OF POPULAR CINEMA
LevelUndergraduate
UnitLiterary Arts and Studies
Subject Literary Arts and Studies
PeriodFall 2024
Credits3
FormatLecture
ModeIn-Person
Start and End2024-09-04 to 2024-12-11
Times: W | 7:00 PM - 10:00 PMInstructor(s): Meher Divya MandaLocation(s): College Building, Room 442Enrolled / Capacity: 25Status: Closed
SECTION DESCRIPTION
Commonly associated with the kitsch of song-and-dance routines, heavy melodrama, and elaborate staging, popular Hindi cinema, exoticised as Bollywood the world over, has come to represent a singular appeal among global movie industries. However, this broad-stroke understanding of Hindi cinema ignores the mechanics of its filmmaking style, its ability to cut through class and religion, and its influence in our markets of narrative, taste, ideas, and politics. There is much to learn about how popular Hindi cinema has helped proliferate cultural aesthetics, create and further social and national identities, and bridge the separation between the Indian audience and the desi diaspora. In this class, we will trace the development of Hindi Cinema, from its socialist early beginnings, to the commercial potboilers of the 70s, the slick multiplex films of the new millennium, and the political dramas of the twenty twenties. We will watch Hindi films (with subtitles) and read critical literature to better understand gender, class, and caste in popular cinema, how stardom shapes cultural production, and the legacy of Hindi movies in a politically energized India.In addition to watching films and reading assigned literature, students will also produce mini-reviews, essays, and presentations throughout the class on films watched and discovered. Students will be required to share three short essays, one long-form feature, and a video essay as part of a group project.
Required Texts: Vijay Mishra, Bollywood Cinema: Temples of Desire (Routledge); Jerry Pinto, The Greatest Show on Earth: Writings on Bollywood (Penguin)
