Davina Bhandar

Joined UVic Gender Studies in 2024

My research interests fall in the intersecting fields of critical race theory, anti-colonialism, abolition, feminist studies, contemporary theories of democracy, freedom, citizenship, sovereignty, and borders. My ongoing research focus is on the migration and relocation of diaspora communities from Punjab India in the territories of the lək̓ʷəŋən  (Lekwungen), Songhees, and Coast Salish peoples, within the structures of the settler colonial state of Canada.  In particular, I am tracing the practices of material domestic cultural production and women’s labour. Most recently I have been involved in a collaborative research project that is grounded in intersectional feminist practice and poetics. Aside from being my personal happy place, the Insurgent/Resurgent Knowledges (IRK) Lab is a generative, virtual intergenerational research community where activists, artists, dreamers, scholars, students come together to centre various trajectories of insurgent and resurgent knowledge. Through this collaboration we are contributing to several publications and workshops and we are letting our hands get messy.

Courses Designed and Taught

GNDR 480 Advanced Seminar in Gender Studies: Abolition is a Feminist Issue

Selected Publications

Anita Girvan, Maya Seshia, Nisha Nath, Davina Bhandar. 2024. Poetic Fabulations: Chartering Relationalities of Black Flourishing, Mutuality, Inclusive Excellence, and Accountability. Atlantis Journal in Gender, Culture and Social Justice.

Davina Bhandar, Catherine Kellogg and Michael CK Ma, 2021. From Carceral Logistics to the Cultural, TOPIA special issue Vol.43 Fall

Anita Girvan, Baljit Kaur Pardesi, Davina Bhandar, and Nisha Nath. 2020. Racial Capitalism Gone Viral: Remedies in Poetics of Care. Feminist Studies special issue Vol 46 no. 3.

Rita Dhamoon, Davina Bhandar, Renisa Mawani and Satwinder Bains. 2019. Unmooring the Komagata Maru: Charting Colonial Trajectories. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.

Davina Bhandar. 2019 “Temporary Arrivals: The Komagata Maru Passengers and Migrant Labour” eds. Rita Dhamoon, Davina Bhandar, Renisa Mawani and Satwinder Bains. Unmooring the Komagata Maru: Charting Colonial Trajectories Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press (141-160)

Davina Bhandar and Rita Dhamoon. 2019 “Introduction: Unmooring the Komagata Maru”. eds. Rita Dhamoon, Davina Bhandar, Renisa Mawani and Satwinder Bains. Unmooring the Komagata Maru: Charting Colonial Trajectories. Vancouver:University of British Columbia Press. (3-31)

Davina Bhandar and Michael CK Ma. 2016 “Phobia in an Age of Post Migrant- Rights: The regional response and criminalization of Tamil refugees.” eds. Hisham Ramadan and Jeffrey Shantz, Manufacturing Phobias: The Political Production of Fear in Theory and Practice, University of Toronto Press (175-208)

Brenna Bhandar and Davina Bhandar. 2016. Cultures of Dispossession Critical Reflections on Status, Rights and Identities,  eds. Brenna Bhandar and Davina Bhandar, Reflections on Dispossession: Critical Feminisms, Darkmatter Journal http://www.darkmatter101.org/site/

Davina Bhandar. 2016. Decolonizing the Politics of Status: When the Border Crosses Us in eds. Brenna Bhandar and Davina Bhandar, Reflections on Dispossession: Critical Feminisms, Darkmatter Journal http://www.darkmatter101.org/site/

Brenna Bhandar and Davina Bhandar eds. 2016 Reflections on Dispossession: Critical Feminism Darkmatter Journal http://www.darkmatter101.org/site/

Affiliations

Editorial Board Studies in Social Justice https://journals.library.brocku.ca/index.php/SSJ/about

Editorial Board BC Studies https://bcstudies.com/