Poulomi Saha is Chair of the Program in Critical Theory and Associate Professor of English at UC Berkeley.
Saha’s current work explores the lengths to which people will go in search of transcendence, and the anguish of those left behind. Their research on cults asks not why some people are unusually susceptible to belief, but why the desires that cults mobilize, for belonging, transformation, certainty, and surrender, are so widely shared. They have spoken on cults, conspiracy, spirituality, and political devotion at venues in the United States, Europe, and Asia, including TEDx Berkeley, and their public writing has appeared in The New Republic. They have discussed their work on NPR’s It’s Been a Minute, KQED’s Forum, BBC News, NBC News, USA Today, People, and other national and international outlets. Saha also regularly hosts conversations for City Arts & Lectures, including events with Salman Rushdie and Judith Butler.
Saha’s first book, An Empire of Touch: Women’s Political Labor & the Fabrication of East Bengal (Columbia University Press, 2019), received the American Comparative Literature Association’s Harry Levin Prize and Helen Tartar First Book Award. Their scholarship spans critical theory, gender and sexuality, race, empire, religion, and political culture. At Berkeley, Saha received the American Cultures Excellence in Teaching Award and delivered the university’s Winter Commencement address in 2022.
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Represented by Jim Rutman at Sterling Lord Literistic, Inc.