Muhammad Manzur Alam

Dr. Muhammad Manzur Alam is an Assistant Professor of English at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas. He earned a Ph.D. in Literary and Cultural Studies from West Virginia University. His doctoral dissertation focuses on the representation of material rifts in South Asian Anglophone fiction and examines how colonial and capitalist interventions disintegrate postcolonial environments. His research interests lie in the areas of ecocriticism, South Asian Anglophone literature, and world literature. He has made conference presentations and publications on South Asian literature, political discourses, ecocriticism, and the Indo-Caribbean writer V.S. Naipaul.

• Ph.D., English (Literary and Cultural Studies), West Virginia University
• M.A., English Literature, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh
• B.A., (Honors) English, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh

• Graduate Teaching Assistant, West Virginia University (2016- 2022)
• Assistant Professor, East West University, Bangladesh (2013-2016)
• Senior Lecturer, East West University, Bangladesh (2006-2013)

Articles and Book Chapters

• “Women and Sensorial Hegemony in Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s The Mistress of Spices.” Special Issue on Indian Writing in English, Journal of Comparative Literature and Aesthetics, Summer 2021.
• “Victime de l’impérialisme? Ou comment réévaluer Naipaul” (Casualty of Imperialism? Reevaluating Naipaul) Translated by Cécile Girardin. Continuité, classicisme, conservatism dans les littératures postcoloniales. Edited by Cécile Girardin and Philip Whyte, Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2013.
• “Capitalism, ‘Hybrid Wars’ and Confiscated Narratives: The Classico-Postmodernist Imperialism of Our Time.” East West Journal of Humanities, 2012.
• “Of Paradoxes and Misrepresentations: The Enigma of Identity in V. S. Naipaul’s Half a Life and Magic Seeds.” Harvest: Jahangirnagar Studies in Language and Literature, 2011.
• “Democracy’s Captain and Mahatma: Morality and Human Rights.” Abraham Lincoln Without Borders: Lincoln’s Legacy Outside the United States, edited by Jyotirmaya Tripathy, Sura P. Rath and William D. Pederson, Pencraft International, 2010.
• “Coming to Terms with India: V.S. Naipaul’s Quest for his Roots.” Spectrum, June 2006.

Conference Presentations

• “Reading South Asian Ecofiction as Counternarratives to Climate Denialism.” “Humanities on the Brink: Energy, Environment, Emergency:” A Nearly Carbon Neutral Virtual Symposium Sponsored by the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (ASLE) and the University of California, Santa Barbara, July 2020.
• “Clash of Perspectives: Global Form, Local Ecology, and Amitav Ghosh’s The Hungry Tide.” “Transnational Spaces: Intersections of Cultures, Languages, and Peoples.” The 50th NeMLA (Northeast Modern Language Association) Anniversary Convention, Gaylord National Resort Center, Maryland, March 2019.
• “Mapping the Interstices of ‘Bonds’ through Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Lowland and Akhtaruzzaman Elias’ Khoabnama.” Bonds: Stony Brook University Graduate Conference. New York, March 2014.
• “Images within Images in Kabir Humayun’s Poems: Unmasking the ‘Systemic Violence.’” 2014 Mardi Gras Conference: Masking the Self: Secrets, Disguise, and Mysteries. Department of English, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, February 2014.
• “Benito Juárez as Mexico’s Iconic Lawyer-Statesman.” Icons and Illusionists: Lawyer-Statesmen and Constitutional Democracy. The Forum on Contemporary Theory, Baroda, IIS University, Jaipur, India, December 2011.
• “‘A Casualty of Imperialism?’ Reevaluating Naipaul.” Continuity, Conservatism, Classicism: Reading Postcolonial Literature against the Grain? International conference, University of Orléans, France, December 2010.
• “Capital, Empire and Globalization: The Unholy Trinity.” Empire and English Studies: Pedagogy and Activism Now. 3rd International Conference, Department of English, East West University, Dhaka, Bangladesh, December 2009.
• “Democracy’s Captain and Mahatma: Morality and Human Rights.” Democracy, the New World Order and English Studies. 2nd International Conference, Department of English, East West University, Dhaka, Bangladesh, December 2008.
• “Identity and Diaspora: V.S. Naipaul’s Reading of Indian Ethnicity.” The Annual International Conference. Literary Association of Nepal, Tribhuvan University, Katmandu, Nepal, March 2007.

• Poetry
• Tennis
• Travelling
• Cooking

• 2020-21: Eberly College Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant Award, Department of English, West Virginia University
• 2019-20: Distinguished Teaching Award, Department of English, West Virginia University

South Asian Literature, World Literature, Environmental Literature, Postcolonial Theory and Literature, Cultural Studies, Modern American Literature, Shakespeare, Composition and Rhetoric.

• Composition
• World Literature