Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University
Admission 2026-27
Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University
Admission 2026-27

Dr. Isha Malhotra

Assistant Professor
isha.malhotra[at]smvdu.ac.in
01991-285524 Extn.: 2618
School of Languages & Literature
Detailed CV

Profile Highlights

Educational Qualification
  • Ph.D. in English – University of Jammu, Jammu & Kashmir (2019)
    Specialization: Gender Studies
  • M.A. in English – Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar (2008)
  • B.A. in Arts – B.U.C College, Batala (2006)
Teaching Experience
  • Assistant Professor, School of Languages & Literature
    Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University (2015–Present)
  • Assistant Professor, Department of English
    Central University of Jammu (2012–2013)
  • Lecturer
    CT Institute of Management and Technology, Punjab (2009–2010)

  • Lecturer
    Baring Union Christian College, Batala (2008–2009)

Administrative Experience

  • Head of Department, School of Languages & Literature – Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University (2020–2023)

Journal Publications
  1. Gupta, Chakshu, and Isha Malhotra. “Robotic Drag: Posthuman Symbiogenesis and Cultural Genitals in Teri Baaton Mein Aisa Uljha Jiya (2024)” Women’s Studies, 2026. (SCOPUS Q2)
  2. Kour, Simranjeet, and Isha Malhotra. “Roads Narratives as Counter-sites: Navigating Public Spaces, Gender and Mobility in Bollywood Film Dhak Dhak (2023)” Asian Women, 2025, 41, pp. 1-26. (SSCI, SCOPUS)
  3. Gupta, Chakshu, and Isha Malhotra. “New cartographies of posturban cities in
    S.B. Divya’s Machinehood (2021)” City, 2025, vol. 29, no. 5-6, pp. 826-843. (SCOPUS Q1)
  4. Gupta, Chakshu, and Isha Malhotra. “Waste and decoloniality in the Tropical
    Futurisms of Shiv Ramdas’s Domechild (2013)” eTropic, 2025, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 119-139. (SCOPUS Q1)
  5. Sharma, Eva, and Isha Malhotra. “Altruistic Surrogacy and Reproductive Futurism in Falguni Kothari’s The Object of Your Affections (2019)”. Women’s Studies, 2024. (SCOPUS Q2)
  6. Gupta, Chakshu, and Isha Malhotra. “Activism of Re-Membering: An Undoing of Museum History and Anthropocentric Ratiocination Through Priya Sarukkai Chabria’s Clone (2018)”. South Asian Review, 2024. (SCOPUS Q2)
  7. Dwivedi, O.P. and Isha Malhotra. “Guest Editorial: “Faces of Precarity: Restructuring Care-mentality in Asia”. SARE, 2024. (SCOPUS Q2)
  8. Bali, Rishav, and Isha Malhotra. “Precarious Lives of Rohingya Refugee Women Emerging as Caregivers: A Visual Analysis of the Refugee Webcomic I Am a Leader of My House”. SARE, 2024. (SCOPUS Q2)
  9. Bali, Rishav, Isha Malhotra and Anurag Kumar. “‘Reinvisiblisation’ of Indian Migrant Labours during/post COVID-19 Pandemic: A Biopolitical Study”. Space and Culture, India, 2024. (SCOPUS)
  10. Gupta, Chakshu, and Isha Malhotra. “Encoding material female bodies through cosmetic surgeries: a study of cultural economy and the biometric dynamics of Indian Hindi film stars”. Medical Humanities, 2024. (SCOPUS Q1)
  11. Bali, Rishav, and Isha Malhotra. “Forced Migration as a “State of Exception”: The Precarious Lives of Migrant Women of Jammu and Kashmir in Kulvir Gupta’s Embers the Beginning and Embers the End of Mirpur”. Journal of International Women’s Studies, 2024. (SCOPUS Q2)
  12. Sharma, Eva, Isha Malhotra and Aditya Gandotra. “Navigating Motherhood through Surrogacy: Biological Citizenship and Maternal Agency in Meera Syal’s The House of Hidden Mothers (2015)”. South Asian Review, 2024. (SCOPUS Q2)
  13. Sharma, Eva, and Isha Malhotra. “Clinical Violence on Bioprecarious Bodies in Kishwar Desai’s Origins of Love”. Women’s Studies, 2023.  (SCOPUS Q2)
  14. Malhotra, Isha, Eva Sharma and Raj Thakur. “Bollywood celebrities as bioconsumers of reproductive technologies in neoliberal fertility markets: A study of popular public discourse”. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 2023.  (SCI, SCOPUS Q1)
  15. Kumar, Anurag, Isha Malhotra and Rishav Bali. “The Changing Contours of the Indian Public Sphere: Courtesans, Culture, and the British Invasion of Oudh in Kenizé Mourad’s In the City of Gold and Silver”. Journal of International Women’s Studies, 2023. (SCOPUS Q2)
  16. Sharma, Eva, and Isha Malhotra. “The biopolitics of transnational commercial gestational surrogacy in Mimi (2021)”. South Asian Popular Culture, 2023. (SCOPUS Q1)
  17. Malhotra, Isha, and Chakshu Gupta. “Analyzing Clinical Gaze and Body Dysmorphia in Roxane Gay’s Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body”. Literary Voice 1(20), 2023. (ESCI, Web of Science)
  18. Kumar, Anurag, Isha Malhotra and Nagendra Kumar. “Dalit Humanism: Marginal Spatial Reality as a Site of Dalit Counterpublic in Bama’s Sangati and Tulsiram’s Murdahiya”. Contemporary Voice of Dalit, 2022. (SCOPUS Q1)
  19. Malhotra, Isha. “Deconstructing Heteronormative Binaries: Androgyny in Virginia Woolf’s Orlando: A Biography”. Literary Voice, 2022. (ESCI, Web of Science)
  20. Malhotra, Isha, and Raj Thakur. “Atypical Athletic Corporeality and Embodied Clinical Deviance: A CaseStudy of Dutee Chand”. Rupkatha Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities (13), 2021. (SCOPUS)
  21. Sharma, Eva, and Isha Malhotra. “Wombs-for-Hire”: Biopolitics and Neoliberal Eugenics of Indian Commercial Surrogacy Industry in Amulya Malladi’s A House for Happy Mothers”. Media Watch, 2021. (SCOPUS)
  22. Thakur, Raj, and Isha Malhotra. “Terrorism as a Media Specific Event: Performative Frames of Uri and Pulwama Reportage in Indian News Media”. Media Watch (XI), 2020. (SCOPUS)
  23. Malhotra, Isha. “Jeanette Winterson’s Fiction: A Postmodernist Fabulation”. International Journal of English and Education. April, 2013, pp. 478-489. (ESJI)
Book-Chapters Written
  • Malhotra, Isha. “Revisiting the Myth of Androgyny in World Literature”. In Myth of Orality and Folklore in World Literature, 2013 Atlantic Publications.
  • Sharma, Eva and Isha Malhotra. “Surrogate Inc.: The Commercialization of Bollywood’s Surrogacy Narrative in the Neoliberal Age”. In Popular Culture in South Asian Context, 2025 Routledge.
Research Supervision

Ph.D. Students Supervised – Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University (2015–Present)

  1. Ms. Eva Sharma (Awarded) Title: Neoliberal Subjectivity and Precarious Bodies: A Biopolitical Analysis of Surrogacy Industry in Select Indian Novels 
  2. Ms. Chakshu Gupta (Awarded) Title: Posthumanist Performativity: A Diffractive Reading of Indian Speculative Fiction
  3. Mr. Rishav Bali (Submitted) Title: Counter Geographies and Image-Text Dialectics: A Study of Select Refugee Graphic Narratives
  4. Ms. Simranjeet Kour (On-going) Title: Gendered Spaces and Mobility: Interrogating Indian Urbanscapes in Select Postmillennial Travel Narratives
  5. Ms. Sonam Angmo (On-going) Title: Remapping Ladakh: Navigating Female Travel Writing, Colonial Legacies and the Neoliberal Gaze

Master’s Thesis Advisor – Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University (2015–Present)

  • Mentored more than 75 Master’s students in English literature and cultural theory.
Conferences/Courses Organized
  1. Served as the Convener in the Two-Day National Conference on “Literature, Culture and Society: Humanities in the 21st Century” organized by SoL&L, SMVDU from 28th – 29th February, 2024.
  2. Served as the Coordinator of the Three-Day workshop on “Research Methodology and Current Research Trends” organized by SoL&L, SMVDU from 17th – 19th January, 2024.
  3. Served as the Coordinator in the Two-Day International Conference “Precarious Lives, Vulnerability and Violence in Indian Public Sphere” organized by School of Languages & Literature, SMVDU from 16th-17th March, 23.
  4. Chaired a session and presented a paper in the Two-day international conference on “Precarious Lives, Vulnerability and Violence in Indian Public Sphere” organized by School of Languages & Literature, SMVDU from 16th-17th March, 23.
  5. Served as the Coordinator in the “Book release function of “Glimpses of Dogra Culture and Heritage” organized by SoL&L on 1st March, 2023.
  6. Served as the Coordinator in the “Dogri Manyata Diwas” organized by SMVDU on 22nd December, 2022.
  7. Served as the Convener in the “Critical Appraisal and Evaluation of Dogri Novels” organized by Sahitya Academy & SMVDU from 18th-19th November, 2022.
  8. Served as the Coordinator in the “Convocation 2022” organized by SMVDU on 29th July, 2022.
  9. Served as the Co-convener in the One-day Workshop on “Gender Champions for Gender Sensitization and Equality” organized by GSCASH, SMVDU on 5th March, 2022.
  10. Chaired a session in “Cartographies of Gender Based Violence: Literary Reflections from South Asia and Beyond” organized by IIT Patna on 12th-13th March, 2022.
  11. Served as the Coordinator in the “International Mother Language Day” organized by SMVDU on 21st February, 2022.
  12. Served as the Convener in the “Dogri Manyata Diwas” organized by SMVDU on 22nd December, 2021
  13. Served as the Convener in the Two-day National conference “Cultural Studies and Interdisciplinary Humanities: Convergences, Interventions and Possibilities” organized by SoL&L, SMVDU from 22nd – 23rd November, 2021.
  14. Chaired a session in theTwo-day National conference “Cultural Studies and Interdisciplinary Humanities: Convergences, Interventions and possibilities” organized by SMVDU from 22nd-23rd November, 2021.
  15. Served as the Chairperson in the One-day “Literary Festival” at Patnitop organized by SMVDU as part of Iconic week festival on 28th October, 2021.
  16. Served as the Organizer in the One-Day Workshop on “Sidhi Gal Padra Lekha: Dogri de Naami Sahityakaran da Dogri Bhasha ate Sanskriti ch Yogdaan” organized by SMVDU on 24th October, 2021.
  17. Served as the Coordinator in the “Jammu through the Ages: An Introspection” organized by FDC, SMVDU under PMMMNMTT on 17th September, 2021.
  18. Served as the Co-convener in One day Workshop on “Gender Champions for Gender Sensitization and Equality” organized by GSCASH, SMVDU on 5th March, 2020.
  19. Served as the Convener and the Treasurer, Two-day National Workshop on “Research Methodology and Current Research Trends” organized by SoL&L, SMVDU from 22-23 January, 2020.
  20. Served as the Convener, in National Conference on “Contemporary Trends in Humanities and Social Sciences” organized by SoL&L, SMVDU from 20-21 January, 2020.
  21. Chaired a session in the Two-day National Conference “Contemporary Trends in Humanities and Social Sciences” organized by SoL&L, SMVDU from 20th-21st January, 2020.
  22. Served as the Co-convener, in National Doctoral Conclave, organized by SoL&L, SMVDU, from 19-20 September, 2019.
  23. Served as the Organizing Secretary in the One-Week Workshop on Role of Soft-Skills in Effective Classroom Management organized by SoL&L, SMVDU from 19th – 23rd August, 2019.
  24. Served as the Organizing Secretary in the Two-day National Doctoral Student Conclave organized by SoL&L, SMVDU on 25th – 26th March, 2019.
  25. Served as the Organizing Secretary in One-day workshop on “Research Methods” organized by SoL&L, SMVDU on 26 March, 2019.
  26. Served as the Committee I/C of National Conclave, on “International Mother Language Day”, organized by SoL&L, SMVDU, from 11-12 March, 2019.
  27. Served as the Committee Member, of Three Day National Workshop on “Reading and Writing for Public Relations and Corporate Communications”, organized by Media Cell in collaboration with SoL&L, SMVDU from 28-30 January, 2019.
  28. Served as the Co-Convener, in the Two-Day International Conference on “Semiotic Approach to Feminist Studies”, organized by SoL&L, SMVDU from December, 18-19, 2018.
  29. Served as the Committee Member, in One Day National Doctoral Student Conclave, organized by SoL&L, SMVDU from 18 September 2018.
  30. Served as the Member I/C, Purchase Committee, of the Two-day International Conference on “Challenges in Inclusiveness of the Fourth World, organized by SoL&L, SMVDU held on 17-18 December, 2015.
Expert Talks
  1. Delivered a lecture on “Humanities in Indian Universities” in the Faculty Development Programme on Interactions between Multi-Disciplinarity and NEP 2020 organized by the Bennett University, Greater Noida on 2nd June, 2023.
  2. Delivered a lecture on “Recent Trends in Research” in a National level Refresher Course organized by the University of Jammu on 8th November, 2022.
  3. Delivered a lecture “Dispensable Bodies of Commercial Gestational Surrogates as the Site of violence in Womb on rent” in the Conference organized by IIT Patna India in association with Shastri Indo Canadian Institute and St. Marys university, Canada on 12th – 13th march, 2022.
  4. Delivered a lecture on “Research in Gender Studies: text, Context and Approaches” in a Workshop on Research Methodology in Literary Studies and Humanities organized by NIT Srinagar from 28th February – 4th March, 2022.
  5. Delivered a lecture on “Quality research publications” in One Week National Multidisciplinary FDP on Academic Identities: Research Information Management Systems and MOOCs organized by Baring Union Christian College, Punjab on 14th December, 2021.
  6. Invited Lecture in the University Induction Programme on “Understanding Gender and Role Stereotyping” at SMVDU, 30th September, 2019.
Courses offered in the session (Jan-May, 2025)

 

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