I joined the English Department at the Open University in June 2008 after completing my PhD at the Centre for Colonial and Postcolonial Research in the School of English at the University of Kent. I hold an MA in Postcolonial Studies from the University of Kent and a BA in English and European Studies with French.
At the Open University, I am currently working on the ‘Making Britain’ follow-on project ‘Archiving Britain’s Global South Asian Heritage’. Since 2008 I have been working as a Research Associate on the 3-year cross-institutional AHRC-funded project ‘Making Britain: South Asian Visions of Home and Abroad, 1870–1950’. Led by Professor Susheila Nasta, the project explores South Asian contributions to Britain’s literary, cultural and political life to challenge the notion that British culture only started diversifying after World War II, raising important questions about citizenship, Britishness and the conceptualisation of a national culture. The project outputs include a database, books, workshops and a final conference and touring panel exhibition. Please follow this link for further details about the project.
I am the reviews editor for the magazine of international contemporary writing, Wasafiri.
My main research interests lie in colonial and postcolonial literature, especially South Asian literature in English, British Asian history and literature, Indian popular cinema, Salman Rushdie, and African literature as they relate to colonial and postcolonial discourse analysis. I continue researching Bollywood/Hindi cinema and its representation in South-Asian fiction. I am currently reworking my PhD thesis on Rushdie and Indian popular cinema with a view to publication. I am also interested in nineteenth-century, twentieth-century and contemporary British fiction, especially the development of the novel.
‘Terror, Globalisation and the Individual in Salman Rushdie’s Shalimar the Clown’, Journal of Postcolonial Writing, 45.2 (June 2009)
‘Nargis and Aurora Zogoiby - Imaging Mother and Nation in Mehboob Khan’s Mother India and Salman Rushdie’s The Moor’s Last Sigh’ in Jolly, Gubir, Zenia Wadhwani and Deborah Barretto, (eds), Once Upon A Time in Bollywood: The Global Swing of Hindi Cinema (Toronto: TSAR Publications, 2007)
Biographical and Bibliographical contributions to The Cambridge Companion to Salman Rushdie, ed. Abdulrazak Gurnah (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007)
German language learning CD-Rom ‘German Starters’ 2007.
‘India and Indian Diaspora: Images and Perceptions – Films’, Diaspora and Transnational Communities (Delhi: Indira Gandhi Open University, 2006)
‘Cultural Connections: Lagaan and its audience responses’, Third World Quarterly 26.3 (2005): 517-524. Reprinted in Bainbridge, Emma, (ed.), Connecting Cultures (London: Routledge, 2007)
Forthcoming Publications:
‘“For every O’Dwyer […] there is a Shaheed Udham Singh” – the Caxton Hall Assassination of Michael O’Dwyer’ in South Asian Resistances in Britain, 1870–1950, eds. Rehana Ahmed and Sumita Mukherjee (forthcoming Continuum, 2011).
‘Nobody from Bombay should be without a basic film vocabulary’: Midnight’s Children and the visual culture of Indian Popular Cinema’, Rushdie and Visual Culture, ed. Ana Mendes (forthcoming Routledge 2011)
‘Reading India through Indian Popular Cinema – Rushdie’s hero and the Nehruvian vision of the postcolonial Indian state’, Postcolonial Audiences: Readers, Viewers and Reception, eds. Bethan Benwell, James Procter and Gemma Robinson (forthcoming Routledge 2011)
‘Britain’s forgotten volunteers: South Asian contributions in the two world wars’ in South Asians and the Shaping of Britain, 1870- 1950: A Sourcebook, ed. Ruvani Ranasinha with Rehana Ahmed, Sumita Mukherjee and Florian Stadtler (forthcoming Manchester University Press, 2012)
Guest Editor Wasafiri Special Issue ‘India in Britain - Cross-Cultural encounters, 1870-1950’ (forthcoming 2012)
‘Manil Suri’s The Age of Shiva and Salman Rushdie’s The Enchantress of Florence’, Wasafiri (Issue 61, Spring 2010)
‘Piesche/ Küppers/Ani/Alagiyawanna-Kadalie (Hg.)May Ayim Award-Erster internationaler schwarzer deutscher Literaturpreis 2004’, Wasafiri (Issue 56, Winter 2008)
‘Vikram Chandra’s Sacred Games’, Wasafiri (Issue 53, Spring 2008)
‘Salman Rushdie’s Shalimar the Clown’, Wasafiri (Issue 47, Spring 2006)
‘Bollywood Cinema: temples of desire and Cinema India’, Wasafiri (Issue 43, Winter 2004)
‘Battling for Britain? South Asian soldiers in Britain during the Second World War’, ‘Bharat Britain: South Asians Making Britain, 1870-1950’ conference, British Library, London, September 2010.
‘Representations of a Nation and Ideas for a National Theatre: Aubrey Menen and the Experimental Theatre Company’, ‘Re-presenting South Asians’ ‘Making Britain’ Project Workshop, The October Gallery, London, October 2009.
EastEnders Go West: The Jamiat-ul-Muslimin’s Protest against H. G. Wells’ A Short History of the World’ (co-written with Dr Rehana Ahmed), ‘Muslims Making Britain’ Workshop, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, July 2009.
‘South Asians in Britain – remembering Indian contributions to the war effort in the Second World War’, ‘After the War: Post-War Structures of Feeling’ Conference, Institute of English Studies, University of London, May 2009.
‘Picturising Sabu: Empire Cinema, Muslim Identities, and Filmic Stereotypes’, ‘Britain and the Muslim World’ Conference, University of Exeter, April 2009.
‘Imagining Nation, Ethnic Conflict, and Cultural Memory – Michael Ondaatje’s Anil’s Ghost and Romesh Gunesekera’s Reef’, ‘Cultural Memory’ Conference, University of Kent, Canterbury, September 2008.
‘Reading Hindi cinema – Rushdie’s hero and the postcolonial Indian State’, ‘Reading After Empire’ Conference, University of Stirling, September 2008.
‘Kwame Kwei-Armah’s National Theatre Triptych: Staging the Black British experience’ ‘On Whose Terms’ Conference, Goldsmiths University, London, March 2008.
‘Disorientation, global markets, global signs, global itinerants in Salman Rushdie’s The Ground Beneath Her Feet and Hari Kunzru’s Transmission’, Travellers Tales Series, Centre for Gender, Sexuality and Writing, University of Kent, Canterbury, March 2008.
‘Defining the ‘Postcolonial’ in Hindi Cinema and Bollywood.’ Postcolonial Research Seminar, Centre for Colonial and Postcolonial Research, University of Kent, Canterbury, December 2007.
‘Hybrid identities, torn loyalties, ambiguous relationships – Reading Kipling, Reading Rushdie.’ ‘Kipling’ Conference, University of Kent, Canterbury, September 2007.
‘Terror, Globalisation and the Individual in Salman Rushdie’s Shalimar the Clown’. ‘Rerouting the Postcolonial’ Conference, University of Northampton, July 2007.
‘Salman Rushdie’s Shalimar the Clown: writing about everywhere or nowhere?’ ‘The Novel: Democracy’s Form?’ Conference, University of Sussex, April 2007.
‘Imaging Mother and Nation in a Postcolonial “Public Sphere”: Mehboob Khan’s Mother India and Salman Rushdie’s The Moor’s Last Sigh.’ School of English Research Seminar, University of Kent, Feb. 2007.
‘“Dreaming is our gift; it may also be our tragic flaw.” Film songs, Dreams and the Role of Women in Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses’. ‘Dream Writing’ Conference, University of Kent, Oct. 2005.
See also Open Research Online for further details of Florian Stadtler’s research publications.
