I currently hold the position of Assistant Professor in Tamil Studies at the Department of South and Southeast Asian Studies (SSEAS)  at the University of California, Berkeley.

For the academic year 2023-24, I am on research leave and will be a AIIS-NEH fellow from July 2023- January 2024.  Prior to joining UC Berkeley, I worked as a lecturer in Tamil Studies at the South Asian Studies Programme (SASP) at the National University of Singapore (NUS) from 2015 to 2019.

My research focuses on global Tamil literatures, postcolonial literature, and the filmic and digital cultures of contemporary South Asia and its diasporas. Specifically, my work explores narrative forms and their connections to South Asian cultural identity, race, and ethnic politics. For more information about my current projects, click here. 

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As a native speaker of Tamil who grew up in Chennai, Tamil Nadu and having spent some time in the Tamil diaspora in South and Southeast Asia, the place of global Tamil identities and cultures have always fascinated me. These thematics have been central to my research concerns and local Tamil community-oriented projects. For more information on my public engagements, click here.

Email: vasugikailasam@berkeley.edu

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