NishantUpadhyay
- Associate Professor
- Associate Chair of Graduate Studies
- ASIAN AMERICAN STUDIES
- GENDER AND SEXUALITY STUDIES
Pronouns: they / them / theirs
Education
PhD, Social and Political Thought, York University, Canada, 2016
MA, Social and Political Thought, York University, Canada, 2010
BA(H), Economics & Development Studies, Queen’s University, Canada, 2007
Research Interests
Asian (North) American Studies; Queer & Trans Studies; Transnational Feminisms and Sexualities; Anti-colonial & Decolonial Thinking; Settler Colonialism, Empire, and Authoritarianism; Intersections of Race, Caste, and Indigeneity; Anti-Caste Critiques, Brahminism, and Hindutva; South Asian Diaspora; Relationality and Solidarity; Critical University Studies
Affiliations
Women & Gender Studies
LGBTQ Studies
Center for Native American and Indigenous Studies
Center for Asian Studies
Nishant’s research and teaching focuses on settler colonialism, empire, and authoritarianism; intersections of race, caste, and indigeneity; queer and trans of color studies; and South Asian diaspora. They are the author of (University of Illinois Press, 2024). The book received the “Outstanding Contribution in Social Sciences” Award by the Association of Asian American Studies (2026). The book examines the interwoven and simultaneous areas of dominant Indian caste complicity in processes of settler colonialism, antiblackness, racial capitalism, brahminical supremacy, Hindu nationalism, and heteropatriarchy. Resource extraction in British Columbia in the 1970s through the 1990s and in present-day Alberta offers examples of spaces that illuminate the dispossession of Indigenous peoples and simultaneously reveals racialized, gendered, and casted labor formations. Upadhyay juxtaposes these extraction sites with examples of anticolonial activism and solidarities from Tkaronto. Analyzing silence on settler colonialism and brahminical caste supremacy, Upadhyay upends the idea of dominant caste Indian diasporas as racially victimized and shows that claiming victimhood denies a very real complicity in enforcing other power structures. Exploring stories of quotidian proximity and intimacy between Indigenous and South Asian communities, Upadhyay offers meditations on anticolonial and anti-casteist ways of knowledge production, ethical relationalities, and solidarities. Book forums and reviews have been published in Ethnic Studies Review, Lateral: Journal of the Cultural Studies Association, Journal of Asian American Studies, Journal of Comparative Literature and Aesthetics, and Sikh Research Journal. The book has also been featured in podcasts such as ,, and .
Upadhyay’s work has been in published in journals such as the American Quarterly, Amerasia Journal, Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies, Critical Ethnic Studies Journal, Cultural Studies, and Feminist Studies. They have edited a special issue of Sikh Formations: Religion, Culture, Theory (2014) on the Ghadar movement, and co-edited a special issue of Feral Feminisms (2015) on transnational feminist analysis of settler colonialism.
Nishant received their PhD at York University, Toronto in the Graduate Program of Social and Political Thought in 2016. Their dissertation received the National Women’s Studies Association/University of Illinois Press First Book Award in 2018. Prior to joining CU Boulder, Nishant taught Women's and Gender Studies at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and Northern Arizona University.
At CU Boulder, they teach within the areas of queer and trans of color studies, theories and foundations of ethnic studies, disability justice, US empire, and Asian American Studies. Their teaching grounds intersectional, transnational, abolitionist, and decolonial frameworks. In recognition of their teaching, they have received the Staff Integrity Award (2020), Best Should Teach Gold Award (2021), and Inaugural COMMrade Award by Communication Graduate Student Association (2024). In their classes, Upadhyay often assigns collective zine as the final project: (Queer and Trans of Color Visions, Spring 2021), (Queer and Trans of Color Visions, Spring 2022), (Disability Justice, Spring 2024).
Publications
Single-authored Book
(University of Illinois Press, 2024).
Peer-reviewed Journal Articles (Selected)
“Fraught Solidarities: Diasporic Hindutva and Claims to Indigeneity,” (2025).
“Against Trans Inclusion in the Military: A Trans of Color Abolitionist Critique”, co-authored with A. I. Gleisberg, (2023).
“Hindu Nation and its Queers: Caste, Islamophobia, and De/coloniality in India.” (2020). Article translated and published in Malayalam by Campus Alive. Reprint published Possibility of Politics in India: Democracy Against a Democratic State, Routledge Press (2025).
“Making of “Model” South Asians on the Tar Sands: Intersections of Race, Caste, and Indigeneity,”(2019).
“Can You Get More American Than Native American?”: (Racialized) Drag Americans, Settler Colonialism, and RuPaul’s Drag Race,” (2019).
“Feminisms, Collaborations, Friendships: A Conversation,” co-authored with Richa Nagar, Özlem Aslan, Nadia Hasan, Omme Rahemtullah, and Begum Uzun, (2016).
“Pinkwatching Israel, Whitewashing Canada: Queer (Settler) Politics and Indigenous Colonization in Canada”, co-authored with Michael C. Jackman, (2014).
Edited Special Journal Issues
“Complicities, Connections, and Struggles: Critical Transnational Feminist Analysis of Settler Colonialism,” special guest co-editor of Feral Feminisms (2015), with Shaista Patel and Ghaida Moussa. “Ghadar: A Living History,” special guest editor of Sikh Formations: Religion, Culture, Theory (2014).
Contributions to Edited Collections (Selected)
“Transnational Itineraries of ‘Global Hinduphobia,’” co-authored with M. Bhan and D. Misri in,eds. S. Thomas and A. Tiongson (Fordham University Press, 2026).
“Towards a Queer Anti-Hindutva Praxis: An interview with the South Asia Solidarity Initiative (SASI) Collective,” in ,ed. N. Thapliyal (Rutgers University Press, 2026).
“‘Free them all’: A conversation on Trans Abolitionist Visions with Jordan Garcia”, in,eds. Arturo Aldama and Jessica Ordaz (University of Arizona Press, 2024).
“Trans/lating Queer, Annihilating Caste, Decolonizing Praxis,” co-authored with Sandeep Bakshi, in, eds. Luise von Flotow and Hala Kamal (Routledge Press, London: 2020).
“Brown Bodies, Borders, and Boats: Reading Tamil ‘Irregular Arrivants’ Throughthe History of theKomagata Maru,"co-authored withNadia Hasan, Sailaja Krishnamurti, OmmeRahemtullah, and Nayani Vathsaladevi-Thiyagarajah, in,eds. Rita K.Dhamoon, Davina Bhandar, Renisa Mawani, and Satwinder K. Bains (UBC Press, Vancouver:2019).*Anthology received honorable mention fromThe Canadian Studies Networkfor the Best Edited Collection in 2020
Non-Peer Reviewed Journal Articles (Selected)
“Author’s Response” to the curated book forum on Indians on Indians Lands, (2026).
“Author’s Response” to the curated book forum on Indians on Indians Lands, (2025).
“Coloniality Of White Feminism and Its Transphobia: A Comment on Burt,” (2021).
“Geographies of Occupation in South Asia”, co-authored with Nosheen Ali, Mona Bhan, Sahana Ghosh, Hafsa Kanjwal, Zunaira Komal, Deepti Misri, Shruti Mukherjee, Sabia Varma, and Ather Zia, (2019).
“Pernicious Continuities: Un/settling Violence, Race and Colonialism,” (2013).
Non-Academic Publications (Selected)
“COVID Carnage in India: Politics of Hatred, Hindu Right, and Western Imperialism”,, (2021).
“On Atlanta and Boulder Shootings: Abolitionist Visions”,, (2021).
“Trans Liberation & Colonial Erasures,”(2020).
“Queer Rights, Section 377, and DecolonizingSexualities,”(2018).
Updated: May 2026