Education:

B.A. Anthropology and South Asian Studies, York University, School of Liberal Arts – Toronto
Ph.D., Sociology, University of the West Indies – St. Augustine, Trinidad

Krystal Nandini Ghisyawan is an Indo-Trinidadian queer scholar-activist, working alongside the Silver Lining Foundation, an LGBTQ anti-bullying organization.

Areas of Interest:

My work uncovers the intersections of racial, ethnic and queer identities with space-making praxes, agency, activism and spirituality, with the concept of “”subjectivity”” being central to much of what I do. I focus on the Caribbean region, but more specifically on the Anglophone Caribbean, further narrowed by my research efforts in Trinidad and Tobago, where I am from, and with South Asian descendants (of whom I am one), and Hindus, the religious community wherein I was raised. My publications tend to focus on one of these geographic and demographic categories, and typically engage one or more of these themes/topics.

Courses taught:

• Introduction to Sociology (SOC 101)
• Race and Ethnicity in the US (SOC 306)
• Crime and Deviance (SOC 205)
• Sexualities in Society (SOC 290)

Honors and Awards:

• Gordon and Sybil K. Lewis award at the Caribbean Studies Association for her book Erotic Cartographies: Decolonization and the Queer Caribbean Imagination (2022, Rutgers University Press)

Publications: 

• Edited Collection:

Later Life Sex and Intimacy in the Majority World. Edited by: Krystal Nandini Ghisyawan (independent academic); Debra Harley (University of Kentucky); Shanon Shah (University College London); and Paul Simpson (Sociology, University of Manchester). Under contract with Polity Press. 2024

• Peer-Reviewed Articles:

2023. “Mirrors and Murals: Reflections on Embodied and State Violence.” South Asian Popular Culture. Special Issue: LGBTQ Popular Cultures in Contemporary South Asia and its Diasporas: Queer Lives in the Times of New Authoritarianisms.

2020. “Queer Tactility: Same-sex Intimacies between Women in Chutney and Soca Music.” Co-authored with Preity Kumar, in Middle Atlantic Review of Latin American Studies 4(2), pp.87–105. DOI: http://doi.org/10.23870/marlas.292

2018. “Pachrāt song tradition and ritual agency in Trinidad.” Co-authored with Natasha Mahabir, in Nidān: International Journal for Indian Studies. Volume 3, No. 2, December 2018, pp. 1-17

2016. “Social Erotics: The Fluidity of Love, Desire and Friendship for Same-Sex Loving Women in Trinidad.” Journal of International Women’s Studies 17(3), 17-31.

2014-2015. “Hunger, highways and human rights: Politics of visibility and social justice in Trinidad and Tobago.” Sargasso and Caribbean IRN Special Collection: Love | Hope | Community: Sexualities and Social Justice . I & II. 57-74

2013. “Geographies of Sexuality: Constructions of space and belonging.” Journal of the Department of Behavioural Sciences 3.1: 28–43.

• Book Chapters:

2021. “Decolonizing the Postcolonial Body in Diasporic Time and Space: South Asians in the Caribbean.” Gender, Sexuality, Decolonization: South Asia in the World Perspective, edited by Ahonaa Roy, 160-179. New York: Routledge.

2021. “Subjective Mapping: A Brief Introduction.” Methodologies in Caribbean Research on Gender and Sexuality, edited by Kamala Kempadoo and Halimah A.F. DeShong, 325-347. Kingston: Ian Randle Publishers.

2020. “Tales from the Field: Myths and Methodologies for researching Same-Sex Desiring People in the Caribbean.” Co-authored with Nikoli Attai, Preity Kumar and Carla Moore, in Beyond Homophobias: Centring LGBTQ Experiences in the Anglophone Caribbean, edited by Moji Anderson and Erin MacLeod, 19-36. Kingston: University of the West Indies Press.

2020. “Chapter Eleven: A Whole New World: Gender Norms, Islamophobia and Orientalism.” Recasting the Disney Princess in an Era of New Media and Social Movements, edited by Shearon Roberts, 181-196. London: The Rowman and Littlefield Publishing Group.

2016 “(Un)Settling the politics of identity and sexuality among Indo-Trinidadian same-sex loving women”. Indo-Caribbean Feminist Thought: Genealogies, Theories, Enactments, edited by Lisa Outar and Gabrielle Hosein, 153-170. London: Palgrave.

2015. “Queer(in) the Caribbean: The Trinidad experience”. In The Global Trajectories of Queerness: Rethinking Same-Sex Politics in the Global South, edited by Sruti Bala and Ashley Tellis, 161–178. Amsterdam: Rodopi.

• Guest Editor

June 2022. Chapter[s], a Newsletter by Postscript London. “Erotic Intimacies and Lessons from Queer Caribbean women.”

• Public Scholarship:

2024. “Why school climate surveys matter”. Editorial. Trinidad and Tobago Newsday. January 31. Co-author Gabrielle Jamela Hosein.

2015. “Forging space: Scholars expanding the field of Indo-Caribbean feminist thought”. Stabroek News. November 16

2015. “Tolerance and Equality: If not now, when?” UWI Today. July 2015.

2015. “Women in Men’s Political Games”. Stabroek News. July 6

• Reports:

2019. Trinidad & Tobago National School Climate Survey Report 2019: Bullying And Gender-Based Violence In Secondary Schools. Port of Spain: The Silver Lining Foundation.

2017. Trinidad and Tobago School Climate Report: Bullying and Gender-based Violence in Secondary Schools. Port of Spain: UNESCO ASPnet

• Workshop Manuals:

2018. Diversity Management and Conflict Resolution: A Teacher Training Manual. Port of Spain: The Silver Lining Foundation and Sexual Cultures of Justice

2018. Diversity Management and Conflict Resolution: A Teacher Training Manual. Take-home Toolkit. Port of Spain: The Silver Lining Foundation and Sexual Cultures of Justice

• Pedagogical Tools:

2018. Introduction to Mapping. Slides and Notes. Digital Libraries of the Caribbean: Teaching Guides and Materials. Online.