Dr. Rahul Sapra
Biography:
Before joining 成人大片 in 2005, Dr. Rahul Sapra worked as a Permanent Lecturer (Tenured) at the University of Delhi (S.G.T.B. Khalsa College). He completed his PhD at Queen鈥檚 University, where he was also awarded a Teaching Fellowship. Dr. Sapra鈥檚 research interests include Early Modern / Renaissance Literatures, Shakespearean Drama and Performance, Film Studies, Literary Theory and Postcolonial Studies. His book The Limits of Orientalism: Seventeenth-Century Representations of India provides alternatives to Edward Said鈥檚 discourse of 鈥淥rientalism鈥 by challenging recent postcolonial readings of the representations of India in seventeenth-century European, predominantly English, travel narratives and other texts such as Shakespeare鈥檚 A Midsummer Night鈥檚 Dream and Dryden鈥檚 Aureng-Zebe. The book exposes the ahistorical and essentialist tendencies in the works of theorists such as Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Homi Bhabha, Kate Teltscher and others. The Limits of Orientalism has been praised for making a 鈥渦seful contribution to the revisionist assault on Said鈥檚 Orientalism鈥 (Times Literary Supplement). Dr. Sapra is currently the Subject Editor of the 鈥淔ilm Section鈥 of the Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism.
Dr. Sapra has been an advocate for a high quality, accessible and affordable post-secondary education in Ontario. He has worked tirelessly for improved government funding of Ontario鈥檚 post-secondary institutions and for better terms and conditions of employment for faculty and academic librarians. For the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations (OCUFA), he was Vice-President (2017-2019), President (2019-2021), and Past-President (2021-2023). OCUFA represents 17,000 faculty and academic librarians in 30 Faculty Associations across Ontario. He was also Vice-President (External) of the Toronto Metropolitan Faculty Association (TFA) (Formerly RFA) from 2014-2018.
Selected Publications:
- ONGOING - Subject Editor (Film). Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism. General Editor. Stephen Ross. London: Routledge. (Online). The Film section will consist of more than 300 entries. (Over 50% of the Film entries were published by 2019).
- BOOK: . Newark: University of Delaware Press (Co-Published with The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group), 2011.
- 鈥淔ilm Subject: Overview鈥. Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism. General Editor. Stephen Ross. London: Routledge, 2016. (Online).
- 鈥淢odernism and Film in South Asia: An Indian Perspective鈥. The Modernist World. Eds. Stephen Ross and Allana C. Lindgren. London: Routledge, 2015. 109-116.
- 鈥淥rientalism or Capitalism: Hastings and the Rhetoric of Empire鈥. Tall Tales and True: India, Historiography and British Imperial Imaginings. Victoria: Monash Asia Institute, 2008. 19-30.
- 鈥淪hakespeare鈥檚 Intellectual Background: A Postmodern Perspective鈥. Ed. Bhim Dahiya. Collection of Essays on Shakespeare鈥檚 Intellectual Background. Delhi: Viva, 2008. 276-290.
- 鈥淎kbar鈥檚 Dream: Religious Toleration and English Transculturation in Mughal India鈥. Modern Philology, University of Chicago Press, 2007 (Co-Authored with Dr. Paul Stevens). 379-411.
- 鈥淭he Favourable Representations of the Mughals in the English Travel Narratives鈥. Renaissance and Reformation. University of Toronto, 2006. 5-36.
Selected Workshops:
- 鈥淪hakespeare and Adaptations鈥 鈥 Joint workshop with Kuljeet Singh, Creative Director, Atelier Expressions. Meraki Arts Residency, India. May 5-7, 2023.
- Shakespearean Theatre and Cinema: An Intertextual Dialogue. Workshop for Safdar Studio. Sponsored by Atelier Expressions. New Delhi. (2015).
- Modernist World Cinema. University of Victoria. (2012).
- Modernism in India. University of Victoria. (2012)
- 鈥淪ee it Feelingly鈥: Global Shakespearean Cinema. Sri Aurobindo Centre for Arts and Communication. New Delhi. (2012)
- Shakespearean Acting and Theatre (joint-workshop) - for the Shakespeare Society of St. Stephen鈥檚 College. University of Delhi. (2007).
Current Research:
Books Projects in progress:
- Is Shakespeare a Foreigner in India?
- The Disabled and the Divine: The Stigma of Mental Disability in Renaissance Literatures
Awards:
Ryersonian of the Year (2021)