Dr. Farzana Akhter

Associate Professor
Department of English

& Dean, Faculty of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences

Faculty

Faculty of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences

Address

A/2, Jahurul Islam Avenue
Jahurul Islam City, Aftabnagar
Dhaka-1212, Bangladesh

Office

Ext: 335/134 || Room No# 120/233
farzana@ewubd.edu

Academic Background

Ph.D. in English with a secondary emphasis in Rhetoric and Composition
University of Arkansas, U.S.A.
M Phil. in English
University of Dhaka, Dhaka, Bangladesh
M.A. in English Literature, University of Dhaka, Dhaka, Bangladesh
B.A. in English, University of Dhaka, Dhaka, Bangladesh

Teaching Experience:

Associate Professor, Department of English, East West University
September 5, 2018 to present.
Assistant Professor, Department of English, East West University
2009 to September 4, 2018.
Instructor of Record, Department of English, University of Arkansas
August 2012 to May 2017.
Senior Lecturer, Department of English, East West University
2003 to June 2009.
Lecturer, Department of English, East West University
September 2000 to January 2003
Adjunct Faculty, Department of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, University of Dhaka
2002 to July 2010.

Administrative Experience:

Chairperson, Department of English, East West University, July 2018 to present.
Member, Faculty Recruitment Committee, East West University, July 2018 to present.
Member, Academic Council, East West University, July 2018 to present.
Member, Admission Test Committee, East West University, July 2018 to present.
Chair (one of the three), Organizing Committee, 1^st Multidisciplinary International Conference on the Social and Life Sciences: Gender, Health, Information and Environment, February 27-29, 2020.
Conference Chair, 5^th International Conference titled Transgressing/ Transcending Borders through Translation, Department of English, East West University, January 2019.
Member, Committee for Student-Teacher Ratio, East West University, Spring 2020, to February 2020.
Member, Sub-Committee for Printing and Publication: 17^th, 18^th, 19^th Convocation, East West University Summer 2017, 2018, 2019.
Member, Committee for publication of Undergraduate Bulletin (14^th Edition), East West University, Summer 2018.
Member, Online Student Registration Implementation Committee, East West University, Summer 2018 to Spring 2019 (April 17, 2018).
Member-Secretary, Review Committee to Improve Faculty Evaluation and Course Advising, East West University, Fall 2017.
Member, Departmental Development Committee, East West University, Fall 2017 to present.
Member/Grader, Assessment Grading Committee, Department of English, University of Arkansas, U.S.A., Summer 2016.
Graduate Student Representative, English as a Second language Committee (EASL), University of Arkansas, U.S.A., Spring 2015-Fall 2015.
Instructor and Advisor, Committee for Piloting New Course, ENGL 2003 Advanced Composition, Department of English, University of Arkansas, U.S.A., Fall 2014.
Member, Committee for Designing Course Material and Syllabus, East West University, 2003 to 2006, January 2008 to 2011.
Department Representative, Newsletter, East West University, June 2005 to December 2006.
Moderator, East West Cultural Club, September 2003 to January 2006.
Moderator, East West English Poetry and Drama Club, January 2005 to December 2005.

Research Interest

Rhetoric and Composition
Contemporary Ethnic and Immigrant American Literature
Globalization and mobility
Diaspora and belongingness

Akhter, Farzana. “Resisting the Politics of Representation: Women, War, and Bangladeshi War Movies,” January 7. 138^th Modern Language Association Annual Convention (MLA). San Francisco, January 5-8, 2023.

Akhter, Farzana. “Bangladeshi War Movies and the Reclamation of Female Agency in Hangor Nodi Grenade and Guerrilla,” January 7. 137^th Modern Language Association Annual Convention (MLA). Washington, January 6-9, 2022. Virtual presentation.

Akhter, Farzana. “Panacea for Nostalgia: The Paradox of Returning Home in Dreaming in Cuban and An American Brat,” January 9. 137^th Modern Language Association Annual Convention (MLA). Washington, January 6-9, 2022. Virtual presentation.

Akhter, Farzana. “Representation of Birangonas in Bangladeshi Movies,” January 14. Association of Teachers of Literatures in English, Bangladesh (ATLEB), In Retrospect: 50 Years of Bangladesh in Literature and Culture, First International Conference, January 14-15, 2022. Virtual presentation.

Akhter, Farzana. “Immigrant Literature: A Mere Commodity for the Consumption of Cultural Fetishists or a Discourse of Resistance and Reformation?” 34th Annual MELUS conference. New Orleans, USA, April 2-5, 2020. Postponed to March 23-28, 2022.

Akhter, Farzana. “Writing Center in Bangladesh: Politics, Pitfalls, and Possibilities.” 2020 Conference on College Composition and Communication Annual Convention, Milwaukee, WI, USA, 25-28 March, 2020. Conference Cancelled.

Akhter, Farzana. "Toward a Sociopolitical Consciousness: Brecht’s Galileo and Mother Courage and their Role in Raising Resistance in Bangladesh.” 117^th Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association (PAMLA) Annual Conference. San Diego, CA , U.S.A., November 14-17, 2019.

Akhter, Farzana. “‘Unhoused’: Trans-Atlantic Journey and its Impact on Identity Formation in Meena Alexander’s Manhattan Music.” Recalibrating Diasporas: Asia Pacific and the Spaces Beyond Conference, organized by School of Arts, Murdoch University, Perth, Western Australia, June 27-28, 2019.

Akhter, Farzana. “The Spectacular City: The Golden Cage Where Subjects Are Created and Power Is Negotiated.” South Central Modern Language Association. Dallas, TX. 3-5 Nov. 2016.

Akhter, Farzana. “Perceptions of Literacy: Teaching Composition as an International Teaching Assistant.” 2014 Annual Convention of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE). Gaylord National Resort, Washington, DC. November 20-25 2014.

Akhter, Farzana. Representations of the Veil: Between Vulnerability and Resilience. 129th MLA Convention. Chicago, IL. January 9-12, 2014. (Participated as Respondent).

Akhter, Farzana. “Negotiating the Politics of Power: Tahmima Anam’s The Good Muslim and Women’s Role in Nation Building.” 14th South Asian Literary Association Conference (SALA). Chicago, IL. January 8-9, 2014.

Akhter, Farzana.“Quest for Home in Amitav Ghosh’s the Glass Palace.” 22nd Annual British Commonwealth and Postcolonial Studies Conference (BCPS). Savannah, GA. February 15-16, 2013.

Akhter, Farzana. Literature 7: African and African American. 33rd annual Southwest/Texas Popular Culture and American Culture Associations conference (SWTX PCA/ACA). Albuquerque, NM. February 8–11, 2012 (Chaired).

Akhter, Farzana. “Reversal of Gender Identities in Eliot’s The Mill on the Floss.” 33rd annual Southwest/Texas Popular Culture and American Culture Associations conference (SWTX PCA/ACA). Albuquerque, NM. February 8–11, 2012

Akhter, Farzana. “Performing Brecht in Bangladesh: Making the Unfamiliar Familiar.” 13^th Symposium of the International Brecht Society on ‘Brecht in/and Asia”. Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, U.S.A. May 19-23, 2010.

National Conference:

Akhter, Farzana. “Shattering the Shackles: Brecht’s Plays and the Language of Political Protest in Bangladesh” 2^nd International Conference on ‘Democracy, the “New World Order” and English Studies’. East West University, Dhaka. December 2008.

Seminar:

Akhter, Farzana. “Mr. Puntila and his Man Matti.” Seminar on Brecht. Goethe Institute, Dhaka. March 2007.

Akhter, Farzana. “Brecht’s Threepenny Opera and Janatar Rangashala.” Seminar. East West University, Dhaka. 2006.

Akhter, Farzana. “American Ethnic and Immigrant Novels: A Mere Commodity or a Discourse of Resistance and Reformation?” South Central Review, vol 40, no. 1, Spring 2023, pp. 1-23, Johns Hopkins UP. Project Muse, doi:10.1353/scr.2023.0000. (Johns Hopkins University Press; Scopus Indexed, Q 2 Journal)

Akhter, Farzana. “Revisiting Manhattan Music in the Time of COVID-19: Body Politics, Anti-Asian Racism and Negotiation of Ethnic Identity.” Journal of Intercultural Studies, vol. 43, issue 6, 2022, pp 704-721. DOI: 10.1080/07256868.2022.2128082. (Scopus Indexed, Q1 Journal)

Akhter, Farzana. “Moving Beyond Victimhood: Female Agency in Bangladeshi War Movies.” In the Cross Fire of History: Women’s War Resistance Discourse in the Global South edited by Lava Asaad and Fayeza Hasanat, 2022, pp 40-52, NJ: Rutgers University Press. ISBN 9781978830226. (Rutgers University Press)

Akhter, Farzana. “Negotiating the Politics of Power: Tahmima Anam’s The Good Muslim and Women’s Role in War and Nation Building.” Reprinted in Bangladeshi Literature in English: A Critical Anthology edited by Mohammad A. Quayum and Md. Mahmudul Hasan, 2021, pp. 241-257, (Asiatic Society of Bangladesh Press)

Akhter, Farzana. “Looking Backward to a Distant Land: South Asian Diaspora and Function of Nostalgia in ‘Silver Pavements, Golden Roofs,’ ‘Mrs. Sen’s’ and The Inheritance of Loss.” South Asian Literature in the World, special issue of South Asian Review, edited by Nalini Iyer and Madhurima Chakraborty, vol. 41, issue 3-4, Nov. 2020, pp. 373–86. DOI: 10.1080/02759527.2020.1840204. (Scopus Indexed, Q1 Journal)

Akhter, Farzana. “Negotiating the Politics of Power: Tahmima Anam’s The Good Muslim and Women’s Role in War and Nation Building.” Originally published in Asiatic: IIUM Journal of English Language and Literature, vol. 12, no. 1, June 2018, pp. 93-107, http://journals.iium.edu.my/asiatic/index.php/AJELL/article/view/1211. (Scopus Indexed, Q2 Journal)

Akhter, Farzana. “Performing Brecht in Bangladesh: Making the Unfamiliar Familiar.” Brecht in/and Asia /Brecht in/und Asien: The Brecht Yearbook / Brecht-Jahrbuch no. 36, edited by Markus Wessendorf and Friedemann Weidauer, 2011, pp. 201-210.

Akhter, Farzana. “Shattering the Shackles: Brecht’s Plays and the Language of Political Protest in Bangladesh.” Literary Paritantra, vol. 2, no. 1, Spring 2010, pp. 65-71.

Akhter, Farzana. “Quest for Home in Amitav Ghosh’s The Glass Palace.” Spectrum Journal of the Department of English, University of Dhaka vol. 5, December 2007, pp. 81-90. ISSN 1562-7195.

Akhter, Farzana. “Reculturizing Brecht.” Spectrum Journal of the Department of English, University of Dhaka, vol. 4, June 2006, pp. 27-40. ISSN 1562-7195.

Other Publications

Akhter, Farzana. “South Asian American Literature,” The Arkansas International, 2016. https://www.arkint.org/online-only/farzana-akhter-on-south-asian-american-lit?rq=farzana%20akhter. (Feature writing)

Akhter, Farzana. “Archie.” Comics through Time: A Historical Encyclopedia. Edited by M. Keith Booker, ABC CLIO: Santa Barbara, CA, U.S.A., 2014.(Encyclopedic Reference)

Akhter, Farzana. Translated articles for Banglapedia, National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh 2003. (Translation)

Participated in online training workshop on "Conferencing and Peer-Review in Online Teaching" organized by the Office of Rhetoric and Composition, University of Arkansas, USA, April 15^th, 2016.
Participated in online training workshop on “Learning Blackboard's Collaborate and Kaltura Features" organized by the Program in Rhetoric and Composition, University of Arkansas, USA, March 19, 2016
Participated in workshop on “Introduction to Online Teaching,” organized by the Office of Rhetoric and Composition, University of Arkansas, USA, October 3, 2014.
Participated in online training workshop on "Conferencing and Peer-Review in Online Teaching" organized by the Office of Rhetoric and Composition, University of Arkansas, USA, April 15^th, 2016.
Participated in online training workshop on “Learning Blackboard's Collaborate and Kaltura Features" organized by the Program in Rhetoric and Composition, University of Arkansas, USA, March 19, 2016
Participated in workshop on “Introduction to Online Teaching,” organized by the Office of Rhetoric and Composition, University of Arkansas, USA, October 3, 2014.
Participated in workshop on “What Writing Teachers Want: crafting Effective Assignments” conducted by Jennifer Mallette, organized by the Office of Rhetoric and Composition, University of Arkansas, USA, October 31, 2014.
Participated in workshop on "Generating Rubrics", conducted by Jocelyn Bailey, organized by the Office of Rhetoric and Composition, University of Arkansas, USA, November 9. 2012.
Participated in workshop on “What Writing Teachers Want: crafting Effective Assignments” conducted by Jennifer Mallette, organized by the Office of Rhetoric and Composition, University of Arkansas, USA, October 31, 2014.
Participated in workshop on "Generating Rubrics", conducted by Jocelyn Bailey, organized by the Office of Rhetoric and Composition, University of Arkansas, USA, November 9. 2012.
Participated in “Post Colonial Literatures, Theory and Pedagogy” conducted by Dr. Sharmila Sen, Assistant Professor, Harvard University, Organized by BRAC University, February 2002.
Participated in symposium on “Classroom Research”, Organized by ELTIP, sponsored by the British Council, Dhaka, November 2000.

Assistant Editor, East West Journal of Humanities (EWJH)
December 1, 2019 to present
Member, Conference Proceeding Editorial Board
1^st Multidisciplinary International Conference on the Social and Life Sciences
Gender, Health, Information and Environment
February 27-29, 2020
Chief Editor, Annual Report of EWU 2019, 2020
Editor, Research Project for East West University Center for Research and Training (EWUCRT). 2018
Member, Editorial Board
Muse, East West Magazine
East West University
2003

Reviewer, Journal of the Centre for English Teaching and Research (CETR) Dhaka University, 2021
Reviewer, East West Journal of Humanities (EWJH), 2019-2020.
Reviewer, Clio: A Journal of Literature, History, and the Philosophy of History, Purdue University Fort Wayne, Sep 2020.
Member, Abstract Review Committee
5th International Conference titled Transgressing/Transcending Borders through Translation, Department of English, 2019

Supervisor: Master Theses, Dept. English, East West University.

Afsana Bintey Helal. Title: “The Politics of Refugee Labelling: Reimagining Refugees’ Struggles in Host Lands,” 2019-2020.
Touhida Khan Khusbu. Title: “9/11 Counter Narratives: Challenging Islamophobia and Defying the Notion of Singular American Tragedy,” 2018-2019.
Tanzina Afrin. Title: “Super Sad True Love Story, Noughts and Crosses, Uglies and ‘Sultana’s Dream’ as Cautionary Dystopian Tales against Socio-political and Moral Degradation,” Jan. 2018- Nov 2018.

External Examiner

MA Thesis: "Fractured Female Lives: Casualties of India's Partition." The University of the West Indies, St, Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago, West Indies. 2021
MA Thesis: University of Liberal Arts, Dhaka, January, 2019
MA thesis: University of Liberal Arts, Dhaka, September, 2019

Invited Session Chair. Trauma and Representation, Bangladeshi English Novels: From Emergence to Efflorescence, the University of Salerno, Italy, 24-25 June 2021.

Invited Session Chair. History, Identity and Adaptation, Bangladeshi English Novels: From Emergence to Efflorescence, the University of Salerno, Italy, 24-25 June 2021.

Conference Co-chair of Organizing Committee. 1^st Multidisciplinary International Conference on the Social and Life Sciences Gender, Health, Information and Environment February 27-29, 2020.

Conference Chair. Transgressing/ Transcending Borders through Translation, 5^th International Conference Department of English, East West University, Dhaka. January 2019.

Session Chair. Keynote Speech. “The Sociology of Poetry Translation.” Transgressing/ Transcending Borders through Translation. 5^th International Conference Department of English, East West University, Dhaka. January 2019.

Moderator. Panel Discussion. Transgressing/ Transcending Borders through Translation, 5^th International Conference Department of English, East West University, Dhaka. January 2019.

Respondent. Representations of the Veil: Between Vulnerability and Resilience. 129th MLA Convention. Chicago, IL., U.S.A., January 9-12, 2014.

Invited Session Chair. Literature 7: African and African American. 33rd Annual Southwest/Texas Popular Culture and American Culture Associations conference (SWTX PCA/ACA). Albuquerque, NM. U.S.A., February 8–11, 2012.

Awards & Achievements

Vance and Mary Celestia Parler Randolph Fellowship in English (for leadership and academic achievement in language, literature, and/or folklore), English Department, University of Arkansas, U.S.A. 2017.
Summer Research GA Award, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, U.S.A. Summer 2016.
University of Arkansas Graduate School Conference Travel Grant, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016.
Graduate Teaching Assistantship, University of Arkansas, U.S.A., 2012-2017
Government Scholarship in Higher Secondary Certificate Examination, 1993.
Government Scholarship in Secondary School Certificate Examination, 1991-92.

Teaching Materials

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Affiliation Professional Membership

Modern Language Association of America (MLA)
Pacific Ancient Modern Language Association (PAMLA)
The Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States (MELUS)
South Asian Literature Association (SALA)
South Central Modern Language Association (SCMLA)

Dr. Farzana Akhter

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