Raman Visiting Scholar in India Studies
The annual Raman Visiting Scholar in India Studies brings a leading scholar or public intellectual to Seattle University to advance learning and dialogue about India and the Indian diaspora.
The Raman Visiting Scholar in India Studies is an annual program at the Roundglass India Center that brings a leading scholar to Seattle University for a short residency focused on advancing interdisciplinary dialogue on India and the Indian diaspora. Supported by the generosity of the Raman Family, the visit centers on a major keynote lecture open to the university and broader Seattle community. Through this program, Seattle University welcomes prominent voices whose work deepens understanding of India’s global significance while engaging students and faculty across disciplines.
The Roundglass India Center is delighted to announce that acclaimed poet, novelist, and performer Tishani Doshi will serve as the 2026–2027 Raman Visiting Scholar in India Studies.
Made possible through the generosity of the Raman Family, the Visiting Scholar program brings a distinguished figure to Seattle University each year for a residency that includes a major public event and engagement with students and faculty across campus — deepening the university's scholarly and cultural connection to India and the Indian American diaspora.
About Tishani Doshi
Tishani Doshi is a Welsh-Gujarati poet, novelist, and former lead dancer with the Chandralekha company, based on the coast of Tamil Nadu. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, winner of the Forward Prize for Best First Collection, and was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Collection in 2021. Her novels The Pleasure Seekers and Small Days and Nights have been recognized by the Orange Prize, the RSL Ondaatje Prize, and the Hindu Fiction Prize, with Small Days and Nights named an Irish Times Book of the Year. Her writing has appeared in The New York Review of Books, Granta, The Guardian, and The New York Times, and she has performed at venues including the Sydney Opera House and the Sorbonne. She currently serves as Visiting Assistant Professor of Practice at NYU Abu Dhabi.
Doshi's fifth poetry collection, Egrets, While War, is forthcoming from Copper Canyon Press.
A Signature Residency
As part of her residency, on October 13, Doshi will bring her acclaimed performance piece "Egrets, While War" to Seattle University's Raisback Auditorium at Cornish College of the Arts. The performance is a staged convergence of poetry, film, and movement that moves between childhood and ancestry, myth and extinction, in dialogue with a filmed ensemble of masked performers. The piece reflects Doshi's distinctive practice of staging her readings as full theatrical works rather than traditional podium events. The public performance will be followed by a conversation with Loyola Endowed Professor and novelist Sonora Jha and a book signing.
Doshi's residency marks the program's first creative-practice appointment, a reflection of the Raman Visiting Scholar program's commitment to India-related scholarship across the arts, sciences, and humanities alike.
Details on the October 13 evening performance and campus programming to follow. Learn more: Tishani Doshi - Copper Canyon Press.