Poonam Sharma
- Email: enps@leeds.ac.uk
- Thesis title: From Empire to Earth: Planetarity in Contemporary Indian Historical Fiction.
- Supervisors: Graham Huggan, Professor John McLeod, Dr Sam Durrant
Profile
I completed my MPhil in Modern South Asian Studies at the University of Cambridge as a Commonwealth Shared Scholar. I have served as an Assistant Professor at the University of Delhi, where I taught undergraduate courses and mentored MA English students. Currently, I am pursuing my PhD at the School of English, University of Leeds (2022–26) as a recipient of the prestigious White Rose College of Arts and Humanities scholarship.
Research interests
I currently work as a Postgraduate Teaching Assistant, delivering seminars and marking undergraduate modules including Race, Writing and Decolonisation, Reading Between the Lines, and Modern Fictions. I have been awarded the Associate Fellowship (D1) through the University of Leeds PRiSE scheme as a professional recognition of my student education practice. I also serve as PGR Coordinator for the Environmental Humanities Research Group in the School of English (2023–present), and was the PGR Representative for the School (2023–2024). I was previously a member of the editorial board of the WRoCAH journal (2022–2023).
I have participated in the WRoCAH BSR Study Week, a residential course on Empire and Commemoration held at the British School at Rome (27 January–1 February 2025). I also completed the PhD course More than Human Humanities (28–31 October 2024), hosted by the Department of Archaeology, History, Cultural Studies and Religion at the University of Bergen.
Peer-reviewed paper publications
- Sharma, P. (2026). ‘“Where do old birds go to die?”: Toxic Assemblages and Capitalist Modernity in The Ministry of Utmost Happiness’. The Global South, vol. 20, no. 1, 2026, Special Issue: Toxic Ecologies of the Global South. In Press.
- Sharma, P. (2021). ‘The Nation-state and the Indian English Novel in the Aftermath of Economic Liberalization in India’. Journal of Comparative Literature and Aesthetics, vol. 44, no. 125, 2021, pp. 125-135. ISSN No. 0252-8169
Book Review
- Sharma, P. (2026). ‘Literary transactions in South Africa: a politics of interpretation: by Michael Chapman’, New York, Bloomsbury Academic, 2025, 249 pp., £63.00 (Hardback), ISBN: 9798765122761. Global South Literary Studies, 1–2. https://doi.org/10.1080/30684781.2025.2607072
Conference Papers—funded by WRoCAH awards.
- ‘Planetary Histories and the More-than-Human in South Asian Historical Fiction’, 9th AEEII Conference, University of Barcelona, Spain (26–28 November 2025)
- ‘Planetarity and Animism in Mamang Dai’s The Black Hill: Reimagining Ecologies Through Postcolonial Narratives’, University of Exeter, UK (21–22 March 2025)
- ‘Animism and Religion in Neelum Saram Gour’s Requiem in Raga Janki’, University of Bergen, Norway (28–31 October 2024)
- ‘“Wars Over Wood”: Colonial Extraction and the Burmese Plantations in Amitav Ghosh’s Works’, MLANG Conference, University of Cardiff, UK (6 June 2024)
- ‘Madhubani: An Intersection of Indigenous Art and Ecological Narratives’, LCIR, Birkbeck, University of London, UK (14–15 October 2023)
- ‘Planetarity in Regional Literatures: Reaching Beyond the Global and the Postcolonial’, WRoCAH Research Festival, Universities of York, Leeds, and Sheffield (20 October 2022)
Selected Podcast appearences:
- World Between Words, ‘Poonam Sharma on Planetarity in Contemporary Indian Historical Fiction’, 28 November 2025. https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/dikko9/episodes/Poonam-Sharma-on-Planetarity-in-Contemporary-Indian-Historical-Fiction-e3bdksg/a-acasqpj
- Acquisation Disorder, ‘Ticket to Ride: India’, 18 February 2026. https://podcasts.apple.com/ru/podcast/ticket-to-ride-india/id1878118751?i=1000750325774
Qualifications
- PhD (University of Leeds)
- MPhil (University of Cambridge)
- MA (University of Delhi)
- BA (Hons) (University of Delhi)
Research groups and institutes
- Environmental Humanities Research Group