MEET RICHA
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Richa Nagar is Professor Emeritus of Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities and the inaugural Gloria Steinem ’56 Endowed Chair in Women and Gender Studies at Smith College. Her multi-lingual and multi-genre work has blended scholarship, creative writing, theatre, and activism to build alliances with people’s struggles and to engage questions of ethics, responsibility, and justice.
Richa has published nine books and dozens of essays, articles, plays, and poems in English and Hindi. Her books in English include the series: Playing with Fire: Feminist Thought and Activism through Seven Lives in India (2006), Muddying the Waters: Coauthoring Feminisms Across Scholarship and Activism (2014), and Hungry Translations: Relearning the World Through Radical Vulnerability (2019), published in South Asia as Radical Vulnerability: Development, Translation, Justice (2024). Her work has been translated into German, Italian, Korean, Mandarin, Marathi, Turkish, and Urdu. Richa has worked closely with the Sangtin Kisan Mazdoor Sangathan, a movement of farmers and laborers in India’s Sitapur District, since its founding, and she has co-created a multi-sited community theatre project called Parakh and the online journal, AGITATE! Unsettling Knowledges.
Richa's many awards and honors include the 2020 International Studies Association’s Global Development Studies Book Award for Hungry Translations, the James Blaut Award for Socialist and Critical Geography, the Gloria E. Anzaldúa Book Prize Honorable Mention for Muddying the Waters, the Rumpus’s Women’s History Celebration Listing for Playing with Fire, and the Russell M. and Elizabeth M. Bennett Chair in Excellence & the Beverly and Richard Fink Professorship in Liberal Arts at the University of Minnesota. She has held visiting fellowships at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (Stanford University), the Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Advanced Study (Jawaharlal Nehru University), the Centre for Humanities Research (University of the Western Cape), and the Krantijyoti Savitribai Phule Women’s Studies Centre (Savitribai Phule Pune University). Richa is a Fellow at the UMN Institute on the Environment.
Richa held the title of Professor of the College at UMN from 2015 until her retirement in 2024. This article celebrates her legacy.
KEY ACADEMIC POSITIONS, TITLES, AND AFFILIATIONS (since 2015)
2024- Professor Emerita, Department of Gender, Women, & Sexuality Studies, Univesity of Minnesota, Twin Cities, USA
2024- Inaugural Gloria Steinem ’56 Endowed Chair in Women & Gender Studies, Smith College, Northampton, USA
2020- Honorary Adjunct Professor, Gender and Women's Studies Research Center, Kadir Has University, Istanbul, Turkey
2019- Fellow, Institute on the Environment, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, USA
2019- Honorary Adjunct Professor, Department of Sociology, Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune, India
2017- Honorary Adjunct Professor, Graduate Program in Political Science, Faculty of Graduate Studies, York University, Toronto, Canada
2017-19 Honorary Professor, Unit for Humanities at Rhodes University (UHURU), Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa
2015-21 Beverly and Richard Fink Professor in Liberal Arts, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, USA
2015-20 Russell M. and Elizabeth M. Bennett Chair in Excellence, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, USA
2015-24 Professor of the College, College of Liberal Arts, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, USA
SELECTED AWARDS, HONORS, & ACCOLADES
2024. Invited Judge, Global People's Tribunal for Water Justice (with the UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights to Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation) People’s Water Forum, Bali, Indonesia
2024. Named Key Thinker on Space and Place by M. Gilmartin, P. Hubbard, R. Kitchin, and S. Roberts
2021. Hungry Translations selected as winner of the International Studies Association's Global Development Studies Book Award
2020. Hungry Translations nominated for the Gloria E. Anzaldúa Book Prize of the National Women's Studies Association
2020. Residential Fellowship, Institute for Advanced Study, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, USA
2020. Naked Stages Fellowship, Pillsbury House Theater & the Jerome Foundation (declined), Twin Cities, USA
2019. Distinguished Visiting Professor, Washington University in Saint Louis, USA
2019. James Blaut Award for Socialist and Critical Geography, Awarded by the American Association of Geographers (AAG)
2019. Playing with Fire selected for The Rumpus’s Women’s History Celebration List “What to Read When You Want to Celebrate Women’s History”
2018-19. Grand Challenges Research Collaborative on Equality and Justice & Global Research Scholar Award, University of Minnesota Institute for Advanced Study and the Institute on the Environment
2016. Honored by Hindi Sabha-Sitapur (India) for distinguished contributions to Hindi literature, and to transformative approaches to education & women's empowerment
2015. Muddying the Waters received Gloria E. Anzaldúa Book Prize & National Women's Studies Association's "Honorable Mention" for addressing "important issues of transnational feminist alliances and praxis, struggles over translation, &power differentials in scholarly and activist work and coalitions."
2013. Mellon Visiting Professor, Centre for Humanities Research, University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa
2011-12. Resident Fellow, Jawaharlal Nehru Institute for Advanced Study, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India
2009-10. Fellow, Committee on Institutional Cooperation: Academic Leadership Program, USA
2008-11. Scholar of the College, College of Liberal Arts, University of Minnesota-Twin Ctities, USA
2007. Playing with Fire nominated for the A.K. Ramanujan Book Prize for Translation
2005-06. Resident Fellow, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS), Stanford, USA
2002-05. McKnight Presidential Fellow, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, USA
2000-02. McKnight Land Grant Professor, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, USA
1989-95. MacArthur Fellowship, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, USA
SELECTED ADDRESSES
2025. Distinguished Lecture, Building Dialogues Through Situated Solidarities, Radical Vulnerability, and Hungry Translations, Departments of Sociology & Philosophy, Panjab University, Chandigarh, India
2024. Invited Lecture, Collaboration as Praxis: Three Decades of A Journey, Symposium on: Against Knowledge ‘Extractivism’ Reciprocities, Relations, & Aspirations in (Hyper-)Researched Communities, Oxford University, Oxford, United Kingdom
2024. Annual Yulee Lecture, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program, George Washington University, Washington D.C., USA
2023. Inaugural lecture, ‘Pedagogies of Hope’ Symposium, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada
2023. Special Address, National Conference on Urban Marginality, Social Policy and Education in India, Savitribai Phule Pune University and National Institute of Education and Policy Administration (NIEPA), New Delhi, India
2021. Featured Speaker, Women's & Gender Studies Vilas Feminist Lecture Series, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
2022. Keynote Address, 2nd International Conference on Sustainable Development Goals & Gender Perspective, Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technology (SVNIT), Surat, India
2019. Institute Lecture, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, India
2019. Annual Inaugural University Address, University of Brasilia, Brazil
2019. Keynote, Colloquium on Public History and Archiving Struggle from Below, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
2018. Provost’s Lecture, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand/ Aotearoa
2017. The Antipode Lecture, Annual Conference of the Royal Geographical Society and the Institute of British Geographers, London, United Kingdom
2017. Presidential Address & Invited Symposium Leader on Politically Engaged Pedagogies & Writing Practices, 61st Annual Conference of Comparative and International Education Society (CIES), Atlanta, USA
2016. Distinguished Lecturer, Unit for the Humanities at Rhodes University (UHURU), Grahamstown, South Africa
2016. Rama Watumull Collaborative Lectureship Award, Center for South Asian Studies & Political Science Dept, University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, USA
2013. Peg Zeglin Brand Lecturer, Department of Gender Studies, Indiana University, Bloomington, USA
2013. President’s Annual Book Event Address, Sabancı University, Istanbul, Turkey
2012. Annual Jan Monk Gender, Place, & Culture Distinguished Lecture, Annual Meetings of the Association of American Geographers, New York, USA
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