Amena Ahmed

My name is Amena (Ah-men-ah), and I’m a doctoral student in the Department of English at the University of Toronto. I work on the early modern period, examining archival records and literary representations of cross-cultural contact between England and Mughal India, with a particular focus on the nexus of race, nation, and empire. My research considers how this nexus operates in the context of a rapidly expanding global economic market and shifting geopolitical landscape, more broadly studying how race-making and nation-making were strategically developed into key tools of the British Empire. Although early modern literature is my primary focus, I’m also interested in South Asian diaspora literatures, examining the construction of modern South Asian identities and homelands in the afterlives of colonialism.

Before joining this program, I completed my Honours BA in English, with minors in History and Classics, from the University of Toronto’s Scarborough campus, and completed my MA in English Literature from the University of Chicago.