By Madiha Abdullah
The MUSE Déjà Vu section features interviews with the alumni of the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh, following them on their journey to achieve their goals. In this issue, we are delighted to bring to you the thoughts of the incredible Amreeta Lethe Chowdhury, who has very recently started her MA in English Language and Literature at the University of British Columbia, Canada. She has been awarded an International Tuition Award for the first year (full) and the second year (partial). Whilst at ULAB, she has earned her place on the Dean’s List Scholarship as well as the Vice Chancellor’s Scholarship. Alongside these, passionate and bright, Amreeta has been the sub-editor of The Daily Star Books as well as The Dhaka Tribune, and the Editor in Chief of The Dhaka Apologue, and her writings and works are available on their websites.
Question 1: As a person, what was it that drew you to the path of English Language and Literature?
Answer: I’ve always been interested in stories. I fear that sounds a bit too cliche, especially coming from a Literature major, but I think it’s the truth. The world we live in at the moment is fractured along so many lines that it can often be difficult to think of people beyond the many labels ascribed to them, either by us or themselves. But people are not labels, or categories, or statistics, no matter how intent our capitalist and algorithmic systems are on convincing us that they can be reduced to mere datasets. And I think literature has always helped me ground myself to that thought.
But that was what led me to literature. What sustains my interest in it, especially on a more academic front, is just how diverse and interdisciplinary the field can be. As someone who wishes they could be studying in at least seven other disciplines at any given moment, the field of literary studies gives me a lot of leeway to combine my interests in literature with those in film and media, anthropology, gender and sexuality, and so much more. Most recently, I’ve learned about how interesting research in literary and critical theory can be even when it has nothing to with what we consider to be ‘literature’, i.e., mostly fiction and poetry; but literature is far more than that, taking on and engaging with texts from oral histories and buried or forgotten archives— often entirely comprised of nonfiction—and redefining what literary studies has to contribute to the world.
I think the study of literature can also often be mischaracterized as being limited to the works of old, white, male authors, although in more traditional educational settings like our schools and universities, it often is. I remember arguing about how it was necessary to include more women and authors from diverse backgrounds in our curricula throughout my time in high school and even university. But that is not all that the field of literature is confined to, and it hasn’t been for a long time. I have professors at UBC conducting research in fields like game theory, digital humanities, environmental studies, etc., all within the English department. I myself am looking forward to completing a research emphasis in science and technology studies over the course of my MA. Embracing and encouraging this interdisciplinary and intersectional research, far beyond the confines of ‘the literary canon’, is where I believe the future of the English department lies.
Question 2: Your undergraduate dissertation, ‘Other Spaces, Othered Spaces: Heterotopic Constructions in Bangladeshi Hijra Literature and Culture’ received the Global Undergraduate Award for Highly Commended Paper in the Social Science: Anthropology & Cultural Studies category. What inspired this thesis, and were there any hurdles you faced in writing and researching it?
Answer: My dissertation was actually more extensive than the paper that was selected for the Global Undergraduate Awards and published in their library; it looked at a wider range of contemporary queer Bangladeshi literature, both in terms of the periods and demographics that I surveyed. What I submitted was the first chapter of my thesis adapted to be a standalone paper.
Both my thesis and the paper were inspired in large part by the work that I had been doing for nearly five years prior, which brought me into close contact with the Hijra community, and their lives and practices. As I mentioned above, the songs and oral performances I studied for this chapter would perhaps not even be considered “literature” in many of our classrooms, let alone be taught, but they led me to a long and often buried history of colonial repression and marginalization. How many of us look at a Hijra person and take their social standing for granted, or worse, think that this is the way things should be for them? The position of the Hijra in our status quo is not something we stop to question because we see them as the ‘other’, as nothing more than unfortunate or, worse yet, ‘disabled’ and dispensable. But their histories in this subcontinent are older than most, if not all of our nations, and it is a history worth bringing to the fore time and again, in solidarity with their calls for liberation from the economic and social structures that repress them. That was what I wanted to highlight in my paper.
Sourcing both primary and secondary texts was one of the more difficult parts of conducting this research, especially due to the lack of academic research and documentation of Hijra lives, livelihoods, and performances. Because there is no proper archive or documentation of Hijra literature, whether oral or written, it was very difficult to find enough texts to survey for my research within the scope of my undergraduate thesis.
Question 3: For the 8th DEH Inter-University Student Conference and Cultural Competition, you won the award for Best Paper among 14 universities. What insights would you kindly share for those of us who desire to better ourselves academically?
Answer: I think it is important to develop and work on your research interests early on, to take an interest in and follow all (or as many as possible, at least) threads of knowledge that interest you. Your undergraduate program is a time and space for academic exploration, and it is best to make use of that to the fullest. Work on projects outside your comfort area, volunteer with community organizations, apply for fellowships and programs of study both within and outside your major, and develop your repertoire to the best of your ability. Even if certain extra-curricular activities do not directly influence or affect your research, they will help you expand your understanding of the world around you and become a more well-rounded academic.
A piece of advice I would like to add is to think about and work on what interests you, rather than exclusively chasing projects or connections that you think will benefit you personally or win you accolades. Take an active interest in building community, and think deeply about the kind of knowledge you want to seek out. Academia gives you a platform—what do you want to use it for?
Question 4: We have heard that whilst you were the Editor in Chief of The Dhaka Apologue, the organization was the recipient of a fellowship grant from BRAC, CREA and BLAST, as well as ActionAid and PeaceFirst, and subsequently conducted projects on mental health, media representation of gender, gender-based violence and creating safer online spaces for marginalized communities. Could you please share your thoughts and experience regarding these projects?
Answer: We started The Dhaka Apologue as a youth media organization, talking about the sociopolitical and cultural issues that we felt, as young people, were important to highlight. For the initial year or two of the organization, it was just a group of us, mostly A-Level or HSC students, or at most new undergrads, who felt like they had a social responsibility to bring these issues to the fore on a social media sphere that had not, as of yet, been flooded with bite-sized news content or infographics.
From there on, we wanted to increase the scope of our work and applied to grants and fellowships which would help us reach a wider audience using platforms other than just social media or our website. We conducted online discussions and debates during critical movements like the Anti-Rape Movement in 2018, conducted interviews with activists and organizers working to progress the rights of women and marginalized communities, and organized workshops and seminars to inspire young people around us to take an active interest in the world around them and the issues that plagued it.
It was an incredibly challenging and rewarding experience, and taught us how to write and pitch projects for grants, navigate conflict both within and outside of our immediate teams, and actually execute projects of a scale we had never even attempted before, which needed us to adopt new skills on the go, such as event management, budgeting, and so much more. These fellowships and grant projects also introduced us to an incredible community of mentors, peers, and other like-minded people with whom we’ve stayed connected and even gone on to work with on other projects, long after The Dhaka Apologue ended its journey.
Question 5: What was the defining moment of your extensive list of curricular activities in your opinion?
Answer: I’m not sure if there was a ‘defining moment’, so to speak, and I don’t think I would necessarily draw a line between my curricular and extra-curricular activities either. One has always been deeply informed by the other. For instance, the work I did for the organizations I was a part of formed the foundation for my undergraduate thesis and outlined my present research interests. Even the most casual or unplanned projects that I worked on ended up becoming relevant to other endeavors later down the line. My minor in media studies, working as a scriptwriter in a friend’s film project, and several random transcription and translation projects I’ve done have come back to be uniquely relevant to new endeavors, whether in a fellowship or grad school application, or as an unexpected connection leading to more exciting opportunities.
I would like to hope that a truly defining moment is yet to come and not already behind me, but I suspect that it will continue to be what it is now—not a singular moment, project, or achievement, but instead a culmination of everything I’ve done over the course of my life.
Question 6: At the Taiwan Hakka Poetry Conference 2024, you spoke on how death determined life. How would you describe the role of grief in your writings?
Answer: My Dadi died in 2022, and all that I’ve written since has been stained by grief. Every last word.
The grief I wrote about in my essay for this conference was certainly informed in great part by this loss, but also the complete and utter disorientation I felt from several simultaneous crises taking place around the world. My work dealt with grief of different kinds, one stemming from the loss of a loved one, certainly, but also from one’s severance with the land they love and belong to—an estrangement from one’s roots. I wrote about land and indigeneity: of the works of the Taiwanese poet Ching-fa Wu, the genocide in Palestine, and the persecution of Bawm and indigenous citizens in our own country.
I don’t think I’ve been able to escape the sustained prominence of grief in my life since my grandmother’s death. I don’t know if I ever will. Until then, all I write is in grieving.
Question 7: What is the story you wish to tell the world?
Answer: I think that’s precisely the question I’ve been trying to grapple with for a while now. I suppose when I happen upon the story, I wish to tell the world and finally end up telling it, the world will find out too?
