KRIS MANJAPRA
DIRECTOR OF THE DEPARTMENT OF STUDIES IN RACE, COLONIALISM, AND DIASPORA AND ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF HISTORY
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Manjapra and his colleagues, in their work through RCD, are hoping to bring even more scholars into Tufts’ intellectual landscape—especially faculty of color. They hope to expand the reach and scope of these perspectives, inspiring the students who climb this hill to seek a greater view of their world. Even now, undergraduate students play real roles in the live discovery of hidden histories. Professor Manjapra recalls the research assistants who helped shape one of his latest projects, “Bengali Intellectuals and Decolonization: Visualizing Oral Histories.” Students’ multidisciplinary contributions ranged from curation and correction of texts to adding metadata and performing web design. The online project remains free and publicly accessible for personal exploration and self-inquiry. Professor Manjapra seems to fully encapsulate the mission of RCD faculty when he tells me, “It’s important for students to hear that there are faculty who do their work at Tufts because [the faculty] themselves have that embodied experience in their own life history of minoritization and marginalization, so that a diverse set of students can flourish at this university.” Hearing this, I myself grow excited, especially when Professor Manjapra acknowledges that a new major in RCD will be the next milestone for the department. Professor Manjapra and the new Department of Studies in Race, Colonialism, and Diaspora do not stand tall above the foggy hills of Tufts, looking down. They stand waiting, looking forward, while acknowledging the condensing complexities of our past and present. They stand with a light not to be taken or propped up—rather, a light to be added to, by eager Jumbos who climb our hill and grow it brighter. —HASAN KHAN ’22 PHOTO BY KATHLEEN DOOHER
Between entering and leaving Professor Kris Manjapra’s office, with its view of the foggy Medford hills, I start to consider drastically changing my academic plans. As director of the new Department of Studies in Race, Colonialism, and Diaspora (RCD) and a trained historian, Professor Manjapra speaks with—and in a way even embodies—the gravity of his department’s work in supporting diversity on the Tufts campuses. Rather than teach history as the passive intake of outdated documents (which characterized my high school history classes), Manjapra works to develop learning as a process of shared realizations. In class discussions, he ensures that his students are not afraid to be critical of their own histories and those that have shaped the world around them. “I see students as being in a process of discovery, and the way that I teach my classes is to try not to talk at students but to create an opportunity for a shared inquiry,” Professor Manjapra explains. “All the different perspectives the student brings have a place in what we’re trying to do together.” From collaborating with the Tisch College of Civic Life to fold social activism into the curriculum, to appreciating art history and creating art in the class itself, Manjapra ensures that the multifaceted nature of each student is matched by the interdisciplinary nature of their studies. Classes in RCD, co-taught by faculty from departments across the Academic Quad, become living spaces for professional and personal growth. Professor Manjapra uses a comparativist lens to promote and uncover histories told from new perspectives. He highlights the need for “a kind of revolution that we’re pursuing at Tufts to transform the curriculum so that it increasingly represents the world that we actually live in—a curriculum that is able to cultivate students…as they venture out as social leaders.”