Dr. Kamala Platt is a comparative literature scholar, poet, artist presently teaching at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Her current research investigates contemporary narratives that expose and analyze environmental racism and demand environmental justice. To broaden her understanding of the practice and theory of political struggle, she creates her own visual, performance and written works, and supports grassroots activism taward environmental,gender and racial justice.

   Kamala received her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature at the University of Texas, Austin in 1997. Her dissertation, "Women Write Environmental Justice: the Literary Tradition in India and Greater Mexico" and a subsequent book manuscript,"Environmental Justice Poetics: Cultural Representations of Environmental Racism from Chicanas and South Asian Women" investigate the practice, theory, and aesthetics of women generating cultural poetics that promote environmental justice. "influenced by their socio-historical terrains," she writes,"these womens' texts offer local narratives that chart a space of overlapping social concerns and contrast with representationsfrom outside environmental justice movement. Furthermore, they map out global concerns that suggest an interrelated history between environmental justice and postcolonial issues."

   Kamala's development as a scholar of postcolonial and cultural studies disciplines has grown from realizing the importance of women of color' role in laying groundwork for environmental justice, and from her long-standing interest in a women's cultural studies curriculum that identifies the diversity of gendered experience.

   Prior to receiving her doctorate, Kamala received an MA in Comparative Literature from the University of Texas, an MA in Interdisciplinary Arts from Columbia College in Chicago, and an MFA in Creative Writing from Bowling Green State University in Ohio. She has taught at Nassau Community College on Long Island, New York, Mercy College Jamaica Extension in Queen's, Bethel College in Kansas, and the University of Texas, Austin.

Curriculum Vitae

Home Address:
3910 W. Martin
San Antonio TX, 78207
Ph:210-438-8710
Email: kamalap@earthlink.net

Departmental Affiliations

Education
1992-1997    Ph.D. in Comparative Literature, with specializations in Chicana/o and South Asian Women's Literature and Cultural Studies,University of Texas at Austin,TX (dissertation defended 11-19-97).

1988-1992    MA in Comparative Literature, U.T. at Austin, TX.

1987-1988    MFA in Creative Writing-Poetry, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH.

1982-1985    MA in Interdisciplinary Arts, Columbia College, Chicago,IL. BA in International Development; Art; and Religion (1987),Bethel College,North Newton, KS.

Dissertation
Women Write Environmental Justice: The Literary Tradition in India and Greater Mexico Chair: José E. Liméon;Committee: Ann Cvetkovich, Robin W. Doughty, Elizabeth W. Fernea, Kamala Visweswaran

Publications
Environmental Justice Poetics: Cultural Representations of Environmental Racism from Chicanas and Women in India (book manuscript under consideration).

Academic Articles
'Two Centuries of Environmental Writing in India" The Literature of Nature: An InternationalSourcebook. Patrick Murphy, editor. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, 1998. 315-324.

"Ecocritical Chicana Literature: Ana Castillo's 'Virtual Realism"' substantially revised. Ecofeminist Literary Criticism, Greta Gaard & Patrick Murphy, editors. Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 1998.139-157.

"Ecocritical Chicana Literature: Ana Castillo's 'Virtual Realism"' in ISLE Ecofeminist Literary Criticism Special Issue, Spring 1996, Vol.3.1.67-96.

"On Justifying a Pedagogy: Women of Color Writing" in Our Changing Culture. Phil Lampe & Roger Barnes, eds., San Antonio: University of the Incarnate Word, 1998. 81-91.

"Chicana Strategies for Success and Survival: Cultural Poetics of Environmental Justice from the Mothers of East Los Angeles" in Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies. Volume xviii, Number 2 1997,48-72.

"Environmental Justice in Chicana and South Asian Poetics" in Phoebe: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Feminist Scholarship Theory and Aesthetics: Ecofeminismi Ecocriticism I Volume 9, Number 1, Spring 1997 SUNY/Oneonta, 21-29.

"Environmental Justice: Multicultural by Definition" in Phoebe: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Feminist Scholarship Theory and Aesthetics: Ecofeminismi Ecocriticism II Volume 9, Number 2, Fall 1997 SUNY/Oneonta, 1-fl.

"Commentary on Patricia Hill Collins' 'Toward a New Vision: Race, Class, and Gender as Categories of Analysis and Connection"' Open For Discussion. The Center for Active Learning, Nassau Community College, Winter 1997. n.p.

"On Mennonites, Chicano/as, and a Career in Cultural Studies" in A Drink From the Stream II edited by John K. Sheriff, N. Newton, KS: Bethel College, 1996.107-115.

"Pedagogies of Environmental Justice" Greening the Campus Conference Proceedings. Indiana: Ball State, Spring, 1996.

"Tracking La Migra in Ana Castillo's Sapogonia" Texas College English. Spring, 1995, 28-30.

"Environmental Justice and Women's Work: the UFW, Chipko Movement, and Seringueiros" in San Jose' Studies: A Publication of San Jose State University. October, 1994, 49-62.

"Race and Gender Representations in Clarice Lispector's "A Menor Mulher do Mundo" and Carolina Maria de Jesus' Quarto de Despejo" Afro-Hispanic Review: African- Brazilian Culture Special Issue. Vol. XI, Numbers 1-3,1992.51-57.

"Environmental Justice Poetics in Latino Communities" with Irasema Coronado, National Association of Hispanic and Latino Studies Conference Proceedings, (forthcoming: summer 1999).

"A Conversation with Chicanas: Artistas and Activistas" Fuerza Unida & Tammy G´omez interview and commentary co-written with Irasema Coronado. article under consideration.

''What's Crazy Afterall: Chola Representations in Mi Vida Loca and the Outsiders' Gaze" Post Identity. University of Detroit, Mercy. article under consideration.

Creative Writing Between Lines. poetry manuscript. Poems and short stories published in journals, anthologies and periodicals from 1969-1990s including: "Hibiscus and Marigolds" and "Casualties of War" The Catfish Poets Society Collection Volume One. Austin, TX: Laema Pub. Co., 1992.

"A Brief History of the Santa Fe", "Anglicized," "Response 1991" and "For the Dark Side of the Earth to Shine" in Kinientos: An Anthology Commemorating the Past 500 Years. Newton, KS: Wordsworth, 1992.

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