Poorna Swami
Ph.D. candidate, South Asian Studies
Poorna Swami is a PhD student in the Department of South Asian Studies, with a secondary field in Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies. Her research interests include transnational feminisms, post-partition histories of India and Pakistan, Urdu and Hindi print cultures, Third World intellectual networks, and performance.
A prize-winning translator of Urdu literature, Poorna is currently translating feminist works by Safiya Akhtar and Fahmida Riaz. She is also the co-founder and co-organizer of the South Asian Studies Colloquium at Harvard.
Poorna holds a BA (summa cum laude) in English and Dance-Theatre from Mount Holyoke College. Before coming to Harvard, she worked as a writer and journalist in India.