Aqdas Aftab

Assistant Professor

Assistant Professor, Affiliate in Women's Studies and Gender Studies

My research interests lie at the intersection of postcolonial literatures, decolonial thought, transgender studies, and Black and Dalit studies. My work explores how the imposition of the modern gender binary is central to the processes of racialization of colonialism. I am particularly interested in the quotidian and affective politics of trans of color of life. My first book project, tentatively titles Worlding Within: Trans Speculations Beyond the Human reimagines trans of color life beyond the limitations of liberal humanism. This book project examines narratives about lived conditions positioned as subhuman to theorize decolonial ways of conceptualizing trans color of life. Arguing against liberal humanism's emphasis on the individualized trans body's visibility, I provide ways of reading reading that focus on interiority as a strategy to evade the cis gaze of coloniality, subsequently reconceptualizing trans color of life as speculative, spiritual, and relational. I strive to bring decolonial world-making into the space of the classroom as well. I practice an anti-oppression pedagogy, bringing attention to issues of power and privilege, and building a culture of mutual care and accountability in the classroom. Having learned from Black, Indigenous, and other women of color feminist scholars, I believe that the personal; is political is pedagogical; therefore, I curate syllabi that intentionally center historically marginalized writers and scholars. I am particularly invested in teaching my students to analyze aesthetic form, genre, and narrative in relation to interlocking systems of power. 

Education

• BA, English Literature, Smith College (2014)
• MA, Literary and Cultural Studies, Carnegie Mellon University (2016)
• PhD, English Literature with a Graduate Certificate in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, University of Maryland (2021)

Research Interests

• Trans Studies
• Queer of Color Critique 
• Decolonial Thought
• Transnational, Migration, and Diaspora Studies
• Black Studies
• Dalit Studies
• Interracial Solidarity
• Prison Abolition and Transformative Justice

Publications/Research Listings

1. “Diaspora Fiction as Trans Literature.” The Routledge Handbook of Trans Literature. Routledge. 2024.
2. “TransQueer Negotiations and Decolonial Space-Making in Tsitsi Dangarembga’s Nervous Conditions.” ARIEL: A Review of International English Literature, 55.1, 2024, 105-127.
3. “Ecstatic Kinship and Trans Interiority in Jackie Kay’s Trumpet.” Queer Kinship: Race, Sex, Belonging, Form. Ed. Elizabeth Freeman and Taegan Bradway, Duke University Press, 2022.
4. “The Sexual Subaltern in Court: The Queer & Inter-Caste ‘Obscenities’ of Ismat Chughtai’s ‘Lihaaf’ and Saadat Hasan Manto’s ‘Boo.’” The Journal of Commonwealth and Postcolonial Studies, 7.1, 2019, 29-46.

1. “Modernity’s Overkill and Abolitionist Trans Socialities.” Transgender Studies Quarterly. Duke University Press, 2025.
2. “Racialized Femininities.” The SAGE Encyclopedia of Trans Studies. Ed. Abbie Goldberg and Genny Beemyn, SAGE, 2021.
3. “The Racialization of ‘Transamorous’ Desire: A Decolonial Critique.” Transgender Studies Quarterly Now, Summer 2020.
4. “Book Review: Afro-Fabulations: The Queer Drama of Black Life by Tavia Nyong’o.” Women’s Studies, 48.6, Fall 2019, 649-651.

1. “The Importance of Representation (one-act play). Staged Reading at Intimate Anarchy PlayFest by A Short Leap Theater Chicago (2025). Script forthcoming in Lost Lake Folk Opera Magazine.
2. “Boys Don’t Bleed" (one-act play). Produced for Adieu to Juvenescence by Attempted Productions Chicago (2025). Script published in The Stonecoast Review.
3. “Percussion.” The Margins. 2022.
4. “To Love Freely.” Smoke and Mold Journal. 2022.
5. “Quiet.” Strange Horizons. 2020.
             *Spanish Translation in Asociación Cultural Crononauta. Ed. Carla Battaler, 2021.
             *Bengali Translation in Queer Speculative Fiction from South Asia. Joydhak Prakashan, 2024.
6. “Nuclear Dissociations." Transcendent 4: The Year’s Best Transgender Speculative Fiction. Ed. Bogi Tukacs, Lethe Press, 2019.
             *Republished in Doubleback Review, 2025.
             * Italian Translation in Mio Genere è Secretato (My Gender is Classified), Future Fiction. Ed. Francesco Verso and Martina Del Romano, 2021.