Born in England, Bidhan received his PhD from Goldsmiths College, University of London. Trained in postcolonial studies and the twentieth-century British novel, Bidhan has published articles and book chapters on Hanif Kureishi, Muslim identity and the novel, literary representations of South Asian ethnicity, Buddhism and literature, Christopher Isherwood’s A Single Man, as well as the travel writing of V.S. Naipaul. His recently published monograph is entitled, A Passage To Globalism: Globalization and the Negotiation of Identities in South Asian Diasporic Fiction in Britain.
Since being hired at CSULA, the mission and history of the university have significantly shaped Bidhan’s research interests. His experience teaching at CSULA has inspired two current projects in critical pedagogy and service learning. The first, “The New Uses of Literacy: A Pedagogical Diptych of Literature and Community Engagement,” re-examines the work of Richard Hoggart and Raymond Williams in the context of community engagement projects that Bidhan has worked on at CSULA. The second, “The “Storying Wyvernwood Project”: Rethinking English Studies through Community Engagement and Undergraduate Research,” explores new directions for undergraduate research in English studies through an analysis of the ”Storying Wyvernwood” community research project at CSULA.
Bidhan’s interest in Christopher Isherwood, who taught at CSULA during the 1960’s, represents a second area of research inspired by the history of the English department at CSULA. His current research project on Isherwood, Spiritual Modern: Christopher Isherwood and Vedanta, investigates Isherwood’s fifty-year engagement with Vedanta, focusing upon Isherwood’s role in interpreting, translating and re-imagining traditional Indian philosophical texts for a Western audience.
Bidhan is also currently the faculty director of Calstate LA's BA program at Lancaster state prison, as well as The WordsUncaged and Paws For Life programs at Lancaster State Prison, Mule Creek State Prison and CMC Prison. These programs provide platforms for men sentenced to life sentences in California prisons to dialogue and critically engage with the world beyond the prison walls. The project offers opportunities for rethinking who incarcerated men are, exploring our common humanity, as well as imagining alternatives to the current prison industrial complex in the United States. There are a number of components of these projects, all of which offer opportunities for Calstate LA student involvement. These include; The Journal WordsUncaged literary journal, the WordsUncaged Working Group (WWG) in Prison Pedagogy & Cultural Representation, the WordsUncaged Prison Art and Storying Exhibition to be held at Calstate LA in June 2017, the WordsUncaged website and social media presence, the prison writing library archive.
Please contact Dr Roy if you are interested in working on any of these projects
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9T_TsQ7Ndw&list=PL900ED67A5B3FDCB8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udRdKOxpPHU&feature=youtube_gdata
http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/audio-on-demand/jordana-green/# Then search for 1-13-15 - Jordana Green Show - 10 PM January 14, 2015. A prison in California is employing dogs to help rehabilitate inmates.
http://esotouric.com/canteatsunshine70
