Even as the culture of specific institutions changes and intellectual communities disband and re-form there is a sense of security and assurance in this thought: the U.S. academy is a much bigger space—bigger, too, in the sense of “generous”—than the fiefdoms of any one university or department. The collaborative works of the communities and other collectivities that define it and supplement it are wide ranging, transnational. At the risk of sounding like a liberal humanist, I will say it: to this Sri-Lankan-by-way-of-England, postcolonial/ immigrant academic, this nonplace, the U.S. academy, has always represented a hospitable “home” of sorts—a space to live, breathe, dispute, and share ideas.
At Columbia University, I was incredibly fortunate to work closely with one of the most inspiring, generous, and challenging intellectuals in the U.S. academy—Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. I am grateful to her for giving me so much of her valuable time. I thank her for being such a supportive mentor. I can only hope that these pages do justice, in some small measure, to her teaching, activism, and theory. As a junior faculty member, I have also had other mentors and friends who have helped me find my voice and my way and have given me critical feedback during crucial stages of this project’s development. Heartfelt thanks to Josie Saldaña, David Eng, and Brent Edwards for always giving me the best advice.
This book would never have seen the light of day without the love, support, intellectual generosity, and wicked cool of a core group of friends and interlocutors. I thank Edlie Wong, Stacy Klein, Dominic Leggett, Chris Chism, and Suzanne Daly. Stacy, Edlie, Chris, and Dominic read the manuscript in various rough draft stages and offered insightful feedback and, when needed, unsparing criticism. David Golumbia, too, read much of the manuscript in its piecemeal incarnations. I thank him for his insights. This book is so much the better for the many, many conversations I’ve had with these friends. Indrani Chatterjee gave me brilliant feedback and also showed me that, no matter the outcome, some institutional battles are worth fighting for. Love and respect to her.
At Columbia, Berkeley, Duke, and elsewhere there were also other teachers who gave me words and books to live by. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Rob Nixon for introducing me to the amazing writings of Bessie Head. I also thank him for his wisdom and kindness and for making Columbia a hospitable place for graduate students working in the field of postcolonial studies. From Priscialla Wald, Rob Nixon, Gauri Viswanathan, Ann McClintock, Susan Schweik, Janet Adelman (RIP), Ojars Kratins, and David Lloyd I learned that it is not how we professionalize our graduate and undergraduate students but how we socialize them within the profession that matters. I thank Peter Hitchcock for introducing me to the right debates in British working-class studies during the preliminary stages of dissertation writing.
While this book was begun at Columbia, I firmly believe that it could only have been completed here at Hunter College of the City University of New York. I am grateful to my brilliant Hunter students for their challenging questions and their commitment to struggles for social justice. I learn from them each day. I thank these former graduate and undergraduate students at CUNY and elsewhere for their presence in my classes: Subha Dayal, Lauren Kollar, Stephanie Basile, Bretney Moore, Allison Shelton, Shakti Jaising, Anantha Sudhakhar, Sonali Barua, Nimanthi Perera-Rajasingham, Anthony Americo, Michelle Chan, Karen Gellen, Nami Shin, and Megan Paustian. But in order to thrive in this profession—not just survive it—every junior faculty member should also encounter a supportive feminist chair. I thank Cristina Alfar, my chair, for her integrity and goodness. Along with Barbara Webb, Jeremy Glick, Tanya Agathocleus, Janet Neary, Meena Alexander, Marlene Hennessy, Leigh Jones, Gavin Hollis, Ramesh Mallipeddi, Harriet Luria, Rupal Oza, Ruchi Chaturvedi, Jan Heller Levi, and Thom Taylor, she makes Hunter a joyous place to work.
A loving shout-out to my “family” in New York. During many days of writing and revising, I was sustained by sumptuous meals and political debates at the Bose-Patel household. My gratitude to Maneesha Patel, Satyajit Bose, and especially Tansen and Zaleh Bose-Patel for community and laughter.
At a crucial turning point in this book’s history, I was fortunate to find it had many supporters from across disciplines: Ed Cohen, Jasbir Puar, Julie Livingston, Sumit Guha, Michael McKeon, Matt Buckley, Richard Dienst, John McClure, Harriet Davidson, Abena Busia, Elin Diamond, Ellen Rooney, David Kazanjian, Ben Baer, Shuang Shen, Mary P. Sheridan-Rabideau, Minkah Makalani, Nancy Hewitt, Ethel Brooks, Carlos Decena, Nicole Fleetwood, Jackie Miller, Sandy Flitterman-Lewis, Val Daniel, Stephan Clingman, Stephane Robolin, Evie Shockley, Cheryl Wall, Vicky Unruh, Marianne Dekoven, Ritty Lukose, Ania Loomba, Bruce Robbins, Ranji Khanna, Srinivas Aravamudan, and Chandan Reddy. I thank these scholars for their encouragement. Their support has meant the world to me. Special thanks are due to a critical mass of Sri Lankanist scholars and activists for their spirit of camaraderie and collaboration: Ahilan Kadirgamar, Vasuki Nesiah, Fara Haniffa, Kitana Anand, Cenan Pirani, and Sharika Thiranagama. Kumari Jayawardena encouraged a clueless undergraduate researcher and set her on the right course very early on. I thank her for her uncompromising integrity and her incredible warmth and generosity of spirit. I thank Qadri Ismail for helpful criticisms offered up during the early stages of writing.
I’ve benefited from invitations to present parts of this book at the SSA (Social Scientists Association) in Colombo, at the Franke Institute for the Humanities at the University of Chicago, at Duke University’s New Beginnings Faculty Seminar, at Columbia University’s South Asia Studies University Seminar, at IRW (Rutgers Institute for Research on Women) faculty seminar, and at the Five College faculty seminar in Marxist and postcolonial theory at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. This book has been supported by the Hunter College President’s Fund for Faculty Advancement Award. At Columbia University Press, thanks to my editor, Philip Leventhal, for his perceptive suggestions during crucial phases of revision. Also at Columbia University Press, I thank Whitney Johnson, Leslie Kriesel, and Kerri Cox Sullivan for all their help. I’m deeply grateful to Kerri and Leslie for their dedication and professionalism throughout the copyediting stages of production. The entire book is better because of their thoughtful work on the manuscript.
A book such as this one, which has taken so long to research and write, also takes a toll on family. I thank my patient family in Sri Lanka and in California. Savithri and Chandra Edirisinghe hosted me during numerous research trips to Sri Lanka. My sister, Shamali, and brother-in-law, Steve, constantly divert my attention to the funnier things in life. My parents, Mallika and Joseph Perera, have always been there for me. I could not have finished this book without their love and support. This book is dedicated to them. It is also for my grandmother, Sheila May Edirisinghe (1919–2002), who was always in my corner and always maintained that I was a “clever girl.”