Roshni Rustomji-Kerns

Roshni Rustomji-Kerns

Roshni Rustomji-Kerns earned a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from the American University of Beirut, Lebanon (1961), a Master of Arts in English and American Literature from Duke University (1963) and a Ph. D. in Comparative Literature (English Literature, Classical Sanskrit Literature and Classical Greek Literature) from the University of California, Berkeley (1973). She taught at the American University of Beirut in the General Education Department 1961-1962. She is Professor Emerita from the Hutchins School of Interdisciplinary Studies, Sonoma State University (California), 1993. She began her career at Sonoma State in 1973 as the Coordinator of the BA Program in India Studies. She was a member of the Hutchins School faculty from 1989- 1992. During her tenure at Sonoma State University she taught in the India Studies Program, the English Department, the Women’s Studies Department and the Hutchins School of Interdisciplinary Studies. She was the coordinator of the India Studies Program from 1973 to 1989 and the coordinator of the Interdisciplinary Studies Program from 1978 to 1980. She was a Consulting Professor and Visiting Scholar at the Center for Latin American Studies, Bolivar House, at Stanford University 1997-2005. She was an adjunct faculty member at the New College of California in San Francisco 1997-2008.

Roshni Rustomji-Kerns is the coeditor of BLOOD INTO INK: SOUTH ASIAN AND MIDDLE EASTERN WOMEN WRITE WAR (Westview, 1994) and the editor of LIVING IN AMERICA: FICTION AND POETRY BY SOUTH ASIAN AMERICAN WRITERS (Westview, 1995). She is the editor of the anthology, ENCOUNTERS: PEOPLE OF ASIAN DESCENT IN THE AMERICAS (Rowman and Littlefield, 1999). She is the coeditor of a special edition of ARTES DE MEXICO on the subject of the China Poblana and her essay on Mirrha- Catarina de San Juan is included in the journal (2003).

Roshni Rustomji-Kerns’ essays have appeared in publications such as THE JOURNAL OF SOUTH ASIAN LITERATURE, THE TORONTO SOUTH ASIA REVIEW, THE MASSACHUSETTS REVIEW, THE HEATH ANTHOLOGY OF AMERICAN LITERATURE, THE OXFORD COMPANION TO WOMEN WRITING IN THE UNITED STATES and AMERASIA (UCLA). She has edited two special issues of the JOURNAL OF SOUTH ASIAN LITERATURE and coedited a special Issue of WEBER STUDIES JOURNAL on South Asian American literature and culture (1998). Her short stories and narratives have been published in journals and anthologies such as THE JOURNAL OF SOUTH

ASIAN LITERATURE, THE TORONTO SOUTH ASIA REVIEW, THE MASSACHUSETTS REVIEW, OUR FEET WALK THE SKY: WOMEN OF THE SOUTH ASIAN DIASPORA (Aunt Lute Press, 1993), HER MOTHER’S ASHES AND OTHER STORIES vols. I and II (Toronto South Asia Review Press, 1994 and 1999), CONTOURS OF THE HEART: SOUTH ASIANS MAP North America (Asian American Writers Workshop/Rutgers University 1996), ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICAN JOURNAL (March 1997) and GROWING UP ETHNIC IN AMERICA: CONTEMPORARY FICTION ABOUT LEARNING TO BE AMERICAN (Penguin, 1999), ASIAN AMERICANS ON WAR AND PEACE (UCLA, 2002), CHEERS TO THE MUSES (Asian American Women Artists, 2008), AND THE WORLD CHANGED: CONTEMPORARY STORIES BY PAKISTANI WOMEN (Women Unlimited, India, 2005. The Feminist Press, NY, 2008), WHERE WOMEN TELL STORIES (UCLA, 2009), CHEERS TO MUSES: CONTEMPORARY WORKS BY ASIAN AMERICAN WOMEN(2009). Her novel, THE BRAIDED TONGUE was published in 2004 (TSAR).

She continues to work in the area of contemporary literature and ethnic and colonial studies.