Dr. Bidisha Banerjee is Assistant Professor of English at the Education University of Hong Kong. She has a M.A. in English from Claremont Graduate University and a Phd from the University of Iowa. She won the Jeffrey Campbell Fellowship which enabled her to teach in the Gender Studies department at St. Lawrence University in New York. She has also taught at Chinese University and City University (both in Hong Kong) as an academic visitor.  Dr. Banerjee's research and teaching interests include postcolonial studies, globality and transnationalism, diaspora and exile, postcolonial feminist fictions and theory, cultural studies, Hong Kong urban culture and film studies. She has presented her work widely at conferences in Europe, Asia and the US. Some of her work on South Asian diaspora has been published in journals like Journal of Commonwealth Literature, Inter-Asia Cultural Studies, Postcolonial Text and Asian Cinema. She won the 2011-12 Excellence in Teaching Award in the Faculty of Humanities and was nominated for the Hong Kong wide 2013 UGC Teaching Award.

postcolonial studies, globality and transnationalism, diaspora and exile, postcolonial feminist fictions and theory, cultural studies, film studies and visual culture

Dr. Banerjee teaches courses in postcolonial literature and gender and popular culture. 

Scholarly Books, Monographs and Chapters

• Bidisha Banerjee and Mondy Blaise (2017). Data Provocations: Disappointing, Failing , Malfunctioning. Mirka Koro-Ljungberg, Teija Loytonen, and Marek Tesar, Disrupting Data in Qualitative Inquiry: Entanglements with the Post-Critical and Post-Anthropocentric (49-60). New York: Peter Lang.
• Banerjee, B. (2007). No nation woman: The diasporic woman's quest for home. In M. Lai, & S. P. Kumar (Eds.), Interpreting Homes in South Asian Literature (pp.168-179). India: Pearson Education.

Journal Publications

• Bidisha Banerjee (2017). "Looking Beyond “buildings of chrome and glass”: Hong Kong’s “uncanny postcoloniality” in photographs of Tin Shui Wai.". Visual Studies, 32(1), 60-69.
• Banerjee, Bidisha (2016). Kinship between ‘Companion Species’: A Posthuman Refiguration of the Immigrant Condition in Shaun Tan’s The Arrival. Journal of Postcolonial Writing, 52(4), -----.
• Banerjee, Bidisha (2016). "Creating a 'well-fitted habitus': Material Culture, Home Making and Diasporic Belonging in Shaun Tan's The Arrival.". Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics, 7(1), 53-69.
• Banerjee, Bidisha (2013). Utopian Transformations in the Contact Zone: a posthuman, postcolonial reading of Shaun Tan and John Marsden’s The Rabbits. Global Studies of Childhood, Vol. 3, Issue 4, 418-426.
• Banerjee, Bidisha (2013). What lies within: Misrecognition and the uncanny in Hong Kong's Cityscape. Inter-Asia Cultural Studies, 14, issue 4, 519-537.
• Blaise, M. Banerjee, B. Pacini-Ketchabaw, V. & Taylor, A (2013). Editorial: Researching the naturecultures of postcolonial childhoods. Global Studies of Childhood, Vol. 3, Issue 4, 350-354.
• Banerjee, B. & Blaise, M. (2013). There's something in the air: Becoming-with research practices. Cultural Studies<=>Critical Methodologies, ifirst doi:10.1177/15327086134, xx-xx.
• Bidisha Banerjee (2011). The Native as “(An)Other” Self: Colonial Anxiety in Rudyard Kipling’s The Man Who Would Be King. The Kipling Journal, 85 #344, 7-20.
• Banerjee, Bidisha (2011). “Exoticized Heroine or Hybrid Woman? Diasporic Female Subjectivity in Mira Nair’s Mississippi Masala. Asian Cinema, 22 #2, 417-432.
• Banerjee, Bidisha (2010). “Diaspora’s Dark Room: Photography and the Vision of Loss in Jhumpa Lahiri’s Story ‘Hema and Kaushik.’”. The Journal of Commonwealth Literature, 45.3, 443-456.
• Bidisha Banerjee (2010). “Identity at the Margins: Queer Diasporic Film and the Exploration of Same-Sex Desire in Deepa Mehta’s Fire”. Studies in South Asia Film and Media, A, Vol. 2, Issue 1, 19-39.
• Bidisha Banerjee (2009). “Revisions, Reroutings and Return: Reversing the Teleology of Diaspora in Sunetra Gupta’s Memories of Rain. Postcolonial Text, A, Vol. 5, Issue 2, 1-15.
• Bidisha Banerjee (2009). “Traveling Bodies: Gender, Nationalism and Diasporic Identity Formation in Gurinder Chadha’s Bhaji on the Beach”. Asian Cinema, Vol. 20 #2, 18-38.

Conference Papers

• Bidisha Banerjee (2017, April). “Becoming Udayan: Photography and the Devastating Doubling of Brothers in Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Lowland.”. Invited lecture delivered at St. Lawrence University (Department of English), Canton, NY.
• Bidisha Banerjee (2017, April). “Posthuman Utopias: Inter-species Assemblages and Migranthood in Shaun Tan’s The Arrival.”. Utopia After the Human Conference, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.
• Banerjee, Bidisha (2016, July). “No breasts. Two dry scars…”: The Metaphor of Rape and Postcolonial Trauma in Mahasweta Devi’s “Behind the Bodice.”. 17th ACLALS Conference, 2016. University of Stellenbosch, South Africa, Stellenbosch, South Africa.
• Banerjee, Bidisha (2016, June). “Looking Beyond “buildings of chrome and glass”: Questioning Hong Kong’s postcolonial identity in Derrick Chang’s photographs of Tin Shui Wai. Sixth Asian Conference on Cultural Studies (ACCS), 2016, Kobe, Japan.
• Banerjee, Bidisha (2015, July). “Creating a ‘well-fitted habitus’: Material Culture, Home Making and Diasporic Belonging in Shaun Tan’s The Arrival.”. Department of English, French and German Studies, Faculty of Letters, University of Oviedo, Spain, Oviedo, Spain.
• Banerjee, Bidisha (2015, June). “Finding Gauri: Photography and a Reappraisal of Diasporic Womanhood in Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Lowland.”. Research Centre on Migration Studies, Department of English and Philology, University of Huelva, Spain, Spain.
• Banerjee, Bidisha (2015, June). “Spaces of Hope Amidst the Monumental: Citizenship, Protest and Urban Space in Postcolonial Hong Kong.”. V Lisbon Consortium, Lisbon.
• Blaise, Mindy and Bidisha Banerjee (2014, April). There’s something in the air: Becoming-with research practices.”. “There’s something in the air: Becoming-with research practices.” American Educational Research Association Conference, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania as part of the symposium, ‘Various un/thinkable possibilities of ‘data’’, Philadelphia, PA. USA.
• Banerjee, Bidisha (2013, July). Learning Beyond our Human Concerns: An Exploration of the Post-human in Shaun Tan’s The Arrival. ALEA/AATE National Conference - Brave New World: English and Literacy Teaching for the 21st Century, QUT, Brisbane, Australia.
• Banerjee, Bidisha (2013, June). What Lies Within: Misrecognition and the Uncanny in Hong Kong’s Cityscape. ICAS 8: East West Crossroads, Macau.
• Banerjee, Bidisha (2013, June). “Who will save us from the rabbits?” A Posthuman, Postcolonial Reading of Shaun Tan’s The Rabbits.‟. Transcultural Imaginaries: Making New, Making Strange. A Moving World’s Conference, NTU, Singapore.
• Banerjee, Bidisha (2013, April). “’No breasts, two dry scars…’: The Metaphor of Rape and Postcolonial Trauma in Mahasweta Devi’s ‘Behind the Bodice.’”. Seventh International IDEA Conference: Studies in English, Pamukkale University, Denizli, Turkey.
• Banerjee, Bidisha (2012, October). Kinship Between ‘Companion Species’: A Posthuman Refiguration of the Immigrant Condition in Shaun Tan’s ‘The Arrival’. Research Seminar: Researching Postcolonial Childhoods across Hong Kong, Australia, and Canada, Hong Kong.
• Banerjee, Bidisha (2012, March). Caricatures with Integrity: Subverting Anglo Indian Stereotypes in Indian Cinema. Asian Cinema Studies Society Conference, Hong Kong.
• Banerjee, Bidisha (2011, November). “Living in No Man’s Land: Notions of Home, Belonging and the Double Displacement of Anglo Indians in Bow Barracks Forever.”. “Other” Indias: The Richness of Indian Multiplicity, Universidad de La Laguna, Tenerife, Canaries, Spa.
• Banerjee, Bidisha (2011, September). “Politicising the Pictorial: A Postcolonial Reading of Images in Shaun Tan’s The Arrival.”. 11th Biennial European Association for Studies on Australia (EASA) International Conference. Crossing the Borders: Reality, desire and Imagination in Australian, New Zealand and the Pacific lives, literatures and cultures, Presov, Slovakia.
• Banerjee, Bidisha (2011, June). “Exoticized Heroine or Hybrid Woman? Diasporic Female Subjectivity in Mira Nair’s Mississippi Masala.". Biennial Conference of the International Journal of Arts and Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic.
• Bidisha Banerjee (2010, June). “Understanding the Self as the Other: Geopolitics and the Dramatic Monologue in Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist.”. ACLALS Conference, Nicosia, Cyprus.
• Nicholas YB Wong, Bidisha Banerjee (2010, April). "Embattled Lives in Marginal Space: Portrayals of Tin Shui Wai in Hong Kong Cinema". Cinema and Landscape Conference, University of Sheffield, UK.
• Bidisha Banerjee (2009, September). “Memory and Mourning: Photography and the Vision of Loss in Jhumpa Lahiri’s Unaccustomed Earth.”. Paper presented at "Glocal Imaginaries Conference", University of Lancaster.
• Banerjee, B. (2009, May). Capturing impermanence, finding the self: The trope of photography and diasporic identity formation in Jhumpa Lahiri's story "Hema and Kaushik". Paper presented at the Gesellschaft fur die Neuen Englischsprachigen Literaturen (GNEL) Conference 2009, Munster, Germany.
• Banerjee, B. (2009, May). Will she, won't she? Gender, violence and the female suicide bomber in Santosh Sivan's film "The Terrorist". Paper presented at the Experiencing Gender Conference, Ⅳ International Interdisciplinary Conference, Huelva, Spain.
• Banerjee, B. (2008, April). Silencing the westerner: First person narration in Mohsin Hamid's The Reluctant Fundamentalist. Paper presented at the 3rd International Conference of International Drama/Theatre and Education Association: Studies in English, Izmir, Turkey.
• Banerjee, B. (2008, February). Framing lesbian desire: Alternative viewing practices in queer cinema. Paper presented at the Lesbian Lives XV: Writing Lesbian Culture: Theories and Praxis, Dublin, Ireland.
• Banerjee, B. (2007, July). Revisions, reroutings and return: Reversing the teleology of diaspora in Sunetra Gupta's Memories of Rain. Paper presented at the Rerouting the Postcolonial Conference, Northampton, UK.

All Other Outputs

• Banerjee, B. (2008). Reviewer of journal articles for Postcolonial Text, Gender and Education and ANQ: A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes and reviews.

"Traces of the Real: The Absent Presence of Photography in Postcolonial and Diasporic Literature"

Diasporic literature with its attendant themes of loss, longing, mourning and trauma, has obvious resonances with photography. By bringing together the multidisciplinary fields of postcolonial literature, migration studies and photography, this proje . . . Project Start Year : 2016  Chief Investigator(s) : BANERJEE, Bidisha

Good Teaching Practice – Incorporation of Development of Generic Skills into Course Teaching at Higher Education Context

The present project is related to Community of Practice (CoP). It aims to promote good teaching practice with the focus of incorporating the generic intended learning outcomes (GILOs) in course teaching and develop a peer sharing atmosphere on campus . . . Project Start Year : 2015  Chief Investigator(s) : CHENG, May Hung May 鄭美紅   (Dr BANERJEE, Bidisha as Team Member)

Developing Students’ Affective Attitude in Secondary EFL Classrooms in the PRC

The study investigates the beliefs, design and practices of secondary school teachers from the PRC when implementing the affective dimension of the English language curriculum, and finds out the extent the pedagogy and approaches suggested in the cur . . . Project Start Year : 2010  Chief Investigator(s) : LI, Ka Wo, Benjamin 李家和   (Dr BANERJEE, Bidisha as Co-Investigator)

Racialization of the Asian Female Domestic Worker in Cyprus

Given the complicated history of colonialism as well as a problematic postcolonial present in Cyprus, I am particularly interested in studying the racial othering of the Asian foreign domestic worker in Cyprus and comparing it with the kind of otheri . . . Project Start Year : 2010  Chief Investigator(s) : BANERJEE, Bidisha

“Migrant Workers in Hong Kong.”

The purpose of this project is to connect classroom teaching with the real world and to educate students and heighten their awareness on issues of migration. To create a database (audio and video files) of material on migrant workers in Hong Kong and . . . Project Start Year : 2010  Chief Investigator(s) : BANERJEE, Bidisha

In-service Programme for Guangdong English Teachers 2009

A total of 40 teachers and researchers from different parts of the Guangdong province participated in the programme, which was held at HKIEd from 6 July 2009 to 24 July 2009. This was the 10th Programme jointly orgainised by the Guangdong Education B . . . Project Start Year : 2009  Chief Investigator(s) : LI, Ka Wo, Benjamin 李家和   (Dr BANERJEE, Bidisha as Team Member)

Tin Shui Wai On Screen

In recent years, Hong Kong cinema has been overwhelmed with pan-Asian co-productions (mainly with China), resulting in several epic and martial arts blockbusters. However, such film portray a landscape outside the city and the authentic image of the . . . Project Start Year : 2009  Chief Investigator(s) : BANERJEE, Bidisha

Dr. Banerjee has served as a language arts consultant to several schools in Hong Kong and conducted workshops for teachers. She has presented her work on postcolonial literature and cultural studies at several conferences. Some of the recent ones are as follows:

Who will save us from the rabbits?” A Posthuman, Postcolonial Reading of Shaun Tan’s The Rabbits.‟ Transcultural Imaginaries: Making New, Making Strange. A Moving World’s Conference. Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. 14-17 June 2013

 “What Lies Within: Misrecognition and the Uncanny in Hong Kong’s Cityscape” included in the panel entitled A Place for Interpretations: A Study of Films and Literature in Post/Colonial Hong Kong. Eighth International Convention of Asia Scholars (ICAS 8), Macao, 24-27 April 2013.

“Caricatures with Integrity: Subverting Anglo Indian Stereotypes in Indian Cinema” Asian Cinema Studies Society Conference, University of Hong Kong, March 18-20, 2012

“Living in No Man’s Land: Notions of Home, Belonging and the Double Displacement   of Anglo Indians in Bow Barracks Forever.” II Biennial Conference of the       Spanish Association for Interdisciplinary India Studies: “Other” Indias: The       Richness of Indian Multiplicity. November 23-26, 2011: Universidad de La      Laguna, Tenerife, Canaries, Spain.

“Politicising the Pictorial: A Postcolonial Reading of Images in Shaun Tan’s The Arrival.” 11th Biennial European Association for Studies on Australia (EASA)   International Conference. Crossing the Borders: Reality, desire and Imagination in Australian, New Zealand and the Pacific lives, literatures and cultures. University of Presov, Slovakia. September 12-15, 2011

“Exoticized Heroine or Hybrid Woman? Diasporic Female Subjectivity in Mira Nair’s Mississippi Masala. Biennial Conference of the International Journal of Arts and Sciences. Prague, Czech Republic, June 21-24, 2011