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Dr Yasmeen Narayan

Positions held:
  • Lecturer in Postcolonial and Psychosocial Studies, School of Social Sciences
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  • Overview

    Overview

    Biography

    Yasmeen Narayan is a postcolonial theorist, cultural historian and short story writer who is based in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. Yasmeen convenes theÌýCulture Diaspora Ethnicity MA programmeÌýand the Race ForumÌýat ÌÇÐÄlogoÈë¿Ú.Ìý


    Web profiles

    Professional memberships

    • Caribbean Philosophical Association

    • Postcolonial Studies Association

    Honours and awards

    • Vice Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching and Learning ÌÇÐÄlogoÈë¿Ú, University of London, March 2024
  • Research

    Research

    Research overview

    Ìý

    Yasmeen's research interests lie in the following areas:

    • racialised subjectificationÌý
    • colonial histories of the Caribbean and India particularly the nineteenth century
    • colonial and postcolonial systems of categorisation
    • transcontinental histories of creolization and hybridity
    • histories and cartographies of state and corporate negligence and violence particularly police violence in Britain in the 1970s and 80s
    • contemporary antinationalisms and internationalisms
    • urban cultures
    • postcoloniality
    • reparative pedagogy

    Ìý
    Yasmeen’s current book, under contract with Manchester University Press,Ìýdraws these threads together through a transdisciplinary theory of racialised subjectification.

    Ìý
    'was published in a special issue ofÌýOpen Cultural Studies on violenceÌýin 2025. This transtemporal analysis examines the transconjunctural, transcontinental tributaries of specific elements of Greek thought and Islam through the Greek Arabic Translation Movement in Iraq and academic cultures in Timbuktu. It then explores how these syncretic cultural forms were further creolized in the Caribbean to produce practices of subsistence land cultivation and counter-taxonomies to modern racial typologies of humans and subhumans. This discussion leads to an antinationalist, reparatory theory of creolization during a conjuncture defined by new wars, ultranationalisms and internationalisms and new forms of ecological destruction.


    Yasmeen is currently working on an article thatÌýsynthesises genealogies of colonial categorisation in Britain and India under crown rule 1858 - 1919 into a new cartography of classification through which a transcontinental theory of biocolonisation begins to unfold. This analysisÌýjoins conversations on anticolonial counter-taxonomisation and subterranean histories of cultural invention that are erased by hegemonic forms of categorisation. It further reveals how nineteenth century colonial typologies shape postcolonial systems of classification that are central to contemporary histories of state and corporate negligence and violence.

    Ìý

    short stories

    Ìý

    The short story Ìýis published in the Fall 2026 issue ofÌýInterstice. Ìý

    Ìý

    The short story nightÌýwill be published in 2027.

    Ìý

    Research Centres and Institutes

    • convenor,
    • member,
  • Supervision and teaching

    Supervision and teaching

    Teaching

    Yasmeen designed the open access BSc Social Science programme and is Director of the interdisciplinary, postgraduate Culture Diaspora Ethnicity programme.

    Yasmeen teaches the postgraduate modules â€˜Race’, Empire, Postcoloniality and Culture, Community, Identity and received a Vice Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching and Learning in 2024.

  • Publications

    Publications

    Article

    • Narayan, Yasmeen (2026) . Interstice (2), pp. 13-18.
    • Narayan, Yasmeen (2025) . Open Cultural Studies 9 (1), ISSN 2451-3474.
    • Narayan, Yasmeen (2023) . Ethnic and Racial Studies ISSN 0141-9870.
    • Narayan, Yasmeen (2021) . Identities ISSN 1070-289X.
    • Narayan, Yasmeen (2020) . Discover Society
    • Narayan, Yasmeen (2019) . Ethnic and Racial Studies 42 (8), pp. 1225-1244. ISSN 0141-9870.
    • Narayan, Yasmeen (2019) . Discover Society
    • Narayan, Yasmeen (2015) . Cultural Studies 29 (2), pp. 185-204. ISSN 0950-2386.
    • Narayan, Yasmeen (2009) . Cultural Studies 23 (4), pp. 605-623. ISSN 0950-2386.
    • Narayan, Yasmeen (2005) . Social Identities 11 (4), pp. 395-412. ISSN 1350-4630.

    Book review

    • Narayan, Yasmeen (2009) .

    Book section

    • Narayan, Yasmeen (2012) . In: Roseneil, Sasha and Frosh, Stephen (eds.) Social Research after the Cultural Turn. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 144-159. ISBN 9780230241589.
    • Narayan, Yasmeen (2011) . In: Alexander, C. (ed.) Stuart Hall and 'Race'. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. ISBN 9780415613002.

    Other

    • Narayan, Yasmeen (2019) . Streetsigns: Centre for Urban and Community Research, Goldsmiths Centre for Urban and Community Research, Goldsmiths, University of London.
  • Business and community

    Business and community

    Outreach

    Yasmeen is convenor of the Race Forum which hosts lectures, seminars and symposia on ‘race’ and racism in relation to transcontinental histories and legacies of colonisation and the global geopolitics of the twenty-first century.

    It also holds public reading groups on postcolonial and decolonial thought.Ìý


    Events at the Race Forum are continuing to focus this year on different forms of state and corporate negligence and violence.

    There will be a symposium on racism and British universities that will be held in the autumn term 2026 (further details to be confirmed).Ìý