Vidya Sarveswaran

Vidya Sarveswaran works as an Associate Professor of English in the School of Liberal Arts at IIT Jodhpur, India. Her Ph.D. from IIT Madras focussed on an Ecocritical study of the writings of Terry Tempest Williams. A gold medallist from the University of Madras, she is a Fulbright Fellow (2008-2009) and a Rachel Carson Fellow (2016) from The Rachel Carson Centre for Environment and Society, Munich, Germany. Other than her degrees in Literary Studies and Mass Communication, Vidya also holds a PG Diploma in Environmental Law and Policy.

Research Focus

Her research and teaching focus on Environmental Humanities, Ecocriticism, Literature and Environment, Disaster Narratives, Blue Humanities, Critical Ocean Studies, Environment and Culture, Environment and Heritage.

Books and Contributions

Vidya has co-edited four books:

• Ecoambiguity, Community and Development: Toward a Politicized Ecocriticism (Bloomsbury 2014)
• Ecocriticism of the Global South (Bloomsbury 2015)
• The Routledge Handbook of Ecocriticism and Environmental Communication (Routledge 2019)
• The Bloomsbury Handbook to the Medical Environmental Humanities (Bloomsbury Academic 2023).

Her co-authored book titled, Pravesh- Rite of Passage was released at the India Art, Architecture and Design Biennale 2023, by the Honourable Prime Minister Sri Narendra Modi in December 2023, and was published by the Ministry of Culture, Government of India.

Creative Practice

Vidya enjoys scripting documentaries, and her (directorial) debut documentary titled Under Another Sky was released in the year 2020. The film was screened in Munich and by the Fulbright Commission of India. Vidya loves cinema, quizzing, theatre, photography, cycling, and listening to all genres of music. She enjoys teaching and is passionate about her research on the Environment.