#  Prof. Kareem Khubchandani at Harvard Book Store in conversation with Prof. Durba Mitra 

 



####  calendar\_today Date and Time 

 **November 21, 2025** 

 07:00PM - 08:00PM EST 

####  pin\_drop Location 

 **Harvard Book Store**  



 

 



 

Harvard Book Store welcomes 2025-2026 F.O. Matthiessen Professor Gender and Sexuality **Kareem Khubchandani**—also known by his drag persona LaWhore Vagistan, he's the author of [*Decolonize Drag*](https://orbooks.com/catalog/decolonize-drag/) and Associate Professor of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies—for a discussion of his new book, [*Lessons in Drag: A Queer Manual for Academics, Artists, and Aunties*](https://brandeisuniversitypress.com/title/lessons-in-drag-a-queer-manual-for-academics-artists-and-aunties). He will be joined in conversation by **Durba Mitra**—feminist historian and theorist and author of the award-winning book [*Indian Sex Life: Sexuality and the Colonial Origins of Modern Social Thought.*](https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691196343/indian-sex-life?srsltid=AfmBOoqKwiyWnbTnmZqG8dukNLLSABReXa7HgKWRSpAGtaPINu1cfGPY)

### **About** ***Lessons in Drag***

**Scholarship and performance combine to show how drag can be a blueprint for critique, care, teaching, and worldmaking.**   
   
*Lessons in Drag* brings to life a vibrant and thought-provoking dialogue between scholar Kareem Khubchandani and his drag persona LaWhore Vagistan. Beginning with an intimate interview, the book unfolds in alternating chapters where the two exchange insights, stories, and critiques. Khubchandani delves into the lessons LaWhore’s drag practice offers about academia—shaping his approaches to research, teaching, and writing—while Vagistan reveals how Khubchandani’s scholarship influences her performances, inspiring her understanding of fashion, music, divas, and aunties. Together, their reflections and conversations weave a compelling tapestry of drag’s instructive power. Witty, bold, and deeply personal, *Lessons in Drag* is both an invitation to explore drag as a practice and a celebration of its transformative potential.

### **Praise for** ***Lessons in Drag***

“Shrewdly defying the conventions that often keep academic texts dry and sequestered . . . Khubchandani and Vagistan model a way to integrate research and performance.” -*Hyperallergic*

“Specific in its analyses of drag performance through a South Asian lens, *Lessons in Drag* showcases the art form as an academic medium for the study of culture, performance, and identity creation.” -*Foreword Reviews*

"A rollicking ride through performance and gender studies theory, *Lessons in Drag* is like the most virtuosic of drag performances: both erudite and wildly entertaining. At this perilous historical moment when both the queer nightclub and the university classroom are under siege, Khubchandani insists on the necessity of thinking these sites together. He shows how each can inform the other in ways that are theoretically rich, joyous, and life-affirming." -Gayatri Gopinath, *Impossible Desires: Queer Diasporas and South Asian Public Culture.*

### **Bios**

**Kareem Khubchandani** is Associate Professor of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies at Tufts University. He is the author of two award-winning books, [*Decolonize Drag* (OR Books, 2023)](https://orbooks.com/catalog/decolonize-drag/) and [*Ishtyle: Accenting Gay Indian Nightlife* (University of Michigan Press, 2020)](https://press.umich.edu/Books/I/Ishtyle). He is also the co-editor of the Lambda Literary-nominated [*Queer Nightlife* (University of Michigan Press, 2021)](https://press.umich.edu/Books/Q/Queer-Nightlife). Khubchandani's drag persona LaWhore Vagistan is your favorite aunty’s favorite aunty—always over-dressed, over-educated, and over-opinionated. Her music videos, including “Sari” and “There’s a Stranger in My House,” have been featured at film festivals in Mississauga, Hyderabad, Austin, and San Francisco. In 2009, she co-founded the queer South Asian party Jai Ho! in Chicago, and in 2023, she launched Dragistan, an annual South Asian drag showcase in New York.

**Durba Mitra** is a feminist historian and theorist whose scholarship spans women's, gender, and sexuality studies and global intellectual history. She is the author of two books, the forthcoming [*The Future That Was: A History of Third World Feminism Against Authoritarianism* (Princeton University Press, 2026)](https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691233604/the-future-that-was), which reveals how Third World feminism transformed twentieth-century political thought, and the award-winning [*Indian Sex Life: Sexuality and the Colonial Origins of Modern Social Thought* (Princeton University Press, 2020)](https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691196343/indian-sex-life), on sexuality and the modern social sciences.



 

 



 

 

 Share on:- [     Facebook ](#)
- [     Twitter ](#)
- [     Linkedin ](#)
 


 Save: [ Add to calendar calendar\_today ](https://wgs.fas.harvard.edu/node/1909091/event-feed.ics)  Copy link link