Dr. Shamika Shabnam received her Ph.D. in June 2023 from the Department of English and Cultural Studies at McMaster University, Canada. Her doctoral dissertation, Fragmented Memories: Muktijoddha Masculinity, the Freedom Fighter, and the Birangona-Ma in the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War, examines wartime trauma, nationalist discourse, and gender narratives on the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War.
Central to her work is the figure of the muktijoddha ("Freedom Fighter"), who engaged in armed resistance, and the birangona ("War Heroine") women who survived multiple forms of militarized violation during the Liberation War and whose stories have been suppressed from collective nationalist memory.
She also holds a Master of Arts (M.A.) in Postcolonial Literary and Cultural Studies from the University of Leeds, United Kingdom, and a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in English from the University of Leicester, United Kingdom. She has published her first monograph, Remembering the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War: History, Memory, and Gender (2026), with Routledge in the South Asian Literature in Focus series (Series Editors: Goutam Karmakar, Puspa Damai, Payel Pal, and Deimantas Valančiūnas).
Remembering the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War
History, Memory, and Gender
About the Book
This monograph draws on literary and archival texts to explore the variegated experiences of survivors of the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War. It focuses on muktijouddhas and their mothers, survivors of sexual violence, and women freedom fighters.
The chapters analyse freedom fighter memoirs, women's testimonials, and fictional texts to complicate the dominant nationalist discourse on the Liberation War that celebrates the male muktijouddha while marginalising women's experiences. In so doing, the monograph provides alternative readings of the Liberation War and South Asian history.
The monograph is of significant interest to scholars and researchers in Postcolonial Studies, South Asian Literature & History, Gender & Feminist Theory, and Trauma & Memory Studies.
Book Launch: Remembering the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War
History, Memory, and Gender • In Discussion with Parboti Roy
About the Event
Join author Dr. Shamika Shabnam for the launch and discussion of her newly published monograph, Remembering the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War: History, Memory, and Gender (Routledge, 2026), in conversation with UBC Ph.D. candidate Parboti Roy.
Drawing on archival, testimonial, and literary materials, Dr. Shabnam examines how the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War has been remembered, narrated, and contested, with particular attention to the relationship between personal memory, cultural memory, national history, trauma, and the gendered and embodied experiences of war.
The chapters analyse freedom fighter memoirs, women’s testimonials, and fictional texts to complicate the dominant nationalist discourse on the Liberation War that celebrates the male muktijouddha while marginalising women’s experiences. In doing so, the monograph and talk provide alternative readings of the Liberation War and South Asian history, recentring wartime mothers, survivors of sexual violence, and women freedom fighters.
This event is hosted and organized by the SFU Centre for Comparative Muslim Studies (CCMS). Admission is complimentary and open to scholars, students, and members of the public. Light refreshments will be provided.
News and Events
Core Areas
- Postcolonial Studies
- Cultural Studies
- South Asian Literatures
- South Asian Masculinity Studies
- Trauma & Memory Studies
- Gender & Nationalist Studies
- Partition Studies
- Feminist Studies
Themes
- Women's Narratives
- Motherhood
- Gender
- Religion & Partition
- Language & Culture
- Diasporic Writing
- Feminist Criticism
Institutions
- Capilano University
- McMaster University
- University of Leeds
- University of Leicester
Remembering to Forget
Co-authored with Dr. Chandrima Chakraborty. Examines how wartime mothers in Tahmima Anam's A Golden Age are simultaneously valorized and erased within nationalist discourse surrounding the Bangladesh Liberation War.
Modernist Transitions
Traces cultural encounters between British and Bangla modernist fiction from the 1910s through the 1950s, mapping how literary modernism traveled across colonial and postcolonial boundaries.
Speaking in Fragments
Shamika has produced Chapter 12 in this edited Routledge volume. The chapter examines the birangona-mother's traumatic memories of the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War how survivors speak, how they are heard, and how official memory has fragmented their testimony.
Review of Place and Postcolonial Ecofeminism
A review of Shazia Rahman's book Place and Postcolonial Ecofeminism: Pakistani Women's Literary and Cinematic Fictions, exploring the intersections of place-based identity, ecology, and feminism in Pakistani narratives.
Stitches From The Past
An original poem exploring memory, history, and the intergenerational threads of the past.
Stuck to the Tongue
An original poem dissecting the "tongue" that conjoins the Bangladeshi palate to the Canadian, exploring the right to speak in a mother tongue and the stigma of alienation.
The Shifting Sītā in Pinjar
Analyzes the political representation of the Hindu woman during the 1947 India-Pakistan Partition in Chandra Prakash Dwivedi's 2003 film Pinjar, tracing how the mythological figure of Sita from the Rāmāyaṇa is mobilized and destabilized in the film's feminist reimagining.
Fragmented Memories
Doctoral dissertation housed in McMaster's open-access MacSphere repository. The central work from which her published articles on birangona narratives and wartime memory have grown.
Conference Presentations
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“‘The Bloodied Pond’: Women’s Testimonies of Environmental Risks and Wartime Atrocities During the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War” Canadian Association for Postcolonial Studies (CAPS) • Toronto Metropolitan University2025
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“The Patriotic Mother and Memories of the Birangona-Ma During the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War” Canadian South Asian Studies Association, Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences • George Brown College2025
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“Narrating the Self: The Multifaceted Stories of Women Wartime Survivors of Sexual Violence During the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War” Canadian South Asian Studies Association, Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences • McGill University2024
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“Marginalized Women in Bangladesh Garment & Textile Industries: Their Voices and Testimonies” Honouring International Women’s Day Conference • University of Guelph2022
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“The Birangona-Mother’s Embodied Trauma & Fragmented Memories” Canada India Research Graduate South Asia Conference • University of Guelph2022
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“Women’s Testimonies, Activism, and Solidarity” Canadian Association for Postcolonial Studies • Kwantlen Polytechnic University2022
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“Genocide and the Woman in the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War” Women’s and Gender Studies et Recherches Féministes (WGSRF), Congress • University of Alberta2021
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“Music Nationalism in the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War” Canadian University Music Society (MusCan), Congress • University of Alberta2021
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“Rewriting Gender through Visual Culture: The Liberation War Woman in Guerilla” Film Studies Association of Canada (FSAC), Congress • University of British Columbia2019
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“Unspeaking Nationalism Through the Body” Canadian Association for Postcolonial Studies, Congress • University of British Columbia2019
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“Diasporic Bodies, Queer Memories” Canadian Association for Postcolonial Studies, Congress • Toronto Metropolitan University2017
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“Mapping the Ineffaceable: Flesh and Paper as Inscriptive Sites of Pain” International Association for Auto/Biography Studies (IABA) – Americas Conference • York University2017
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“Polysemic Motherhood and the Inedible Stain: Partition and the Shifting of Female Identity” Symposium on Gender Issues in India • York University and University of Guelph2016
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“Food, Palatability and Socio-Political Discourses around the 1985 Air India Tragedy” History, Memory, Grief: A 30th Air India Anniversary Conference • McMaster University2016
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“The Ambiguous Representations of Subaltern Hindu Widows” Annual Master of Arts Conference • University of Leeds2014
Guest Lectures & Invited Talks
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“Doors, Borders, and Displacement in Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West” McMaster University2019
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“Past and Present: Fragmented Memories in Can You Hear the Nightbird Call?” McMaster University2018
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“Stories, Journeys, Identities: The Community & Diaspora” McMaster University2017
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“Bangladesh and the Partition Memories of 1971” University of Nottingham2017
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“Multiple Narratives and the Diaspora: A Reading of Shani Mootoo’s ‘Out on Main Street’” McMaster University2017
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“Bollywood/Hollywood: Queer Cinematic Representation and the Perils of Translation” McMaster University2015
Departmental & Speaking Series Presentations
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“Discourse Analysis and Archival Research Methods: Postcolonial South Asian Theory and Culture” English & Cultural Studies Vox Populi Speaking Series • McMaster University2022
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“Motherhood and the Indelible Stain: Partition and the Shifting of Female Identity in Chandra Prakash Dwivedi’s Pinjar” English & Cultural Studies Vox Populi • McMaster University2017
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“The Politics of Aesthetics: The Jyoti Singh Rape Case” English & Cultural Studies Vox Populi • McMaster University2016
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“Rape, Renaming, and Identity in Post-Colonial Indo-Bengal and Bollywood” English & Cultural Studies Vox Populi • McMaster University2015
Poetry & Creative Spoken Word Performances
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“Rare Birds of Mac 2” Virtual Poetry Performance Department of English & Cultural Studies • McMaster University2021
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Spoken Poetry Performance Night of Poetry at Grain & Grit • Hamilton, ON2020
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Spoken Poetry Performance International Student Coffee House • Student Success Centre, McMaster University2019
- Instructor, English (2024 – 2026) Capilano University
- Instructor, Historical Studies | South Asian Studies (2024) University of Toronto
- Instructor, English & Cultural Studies | Gender & Social Justice (2020 – 2024) McMaster University
Full Episodes & Videos
Shorts
SHAMIKA SHABNAM, PH.D. (she/her)
South Asian, Postcolonial & Global Anglophone Studies | Gender, Memory & Diaspora
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Research Information
I am an interdisciplinary researcher working across English Literature, South Asian Studies, Postcolonial Studies, Diaspora Studies, and Cultural Studies. My monograph, Remembering the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War: History, Memory, and Gender (Routledge, 2026), engages in the critical and theoretical examination of memory, nationalism, and trauma through literary texts, memoirs, testimonials, and archival materials. Situated at the intersections of Postcolonial, Feminist, and South Asian Studies, this monograph examines how the multifarious intersectional narratives of the 1971 war are remembered, represented, forgotten, and negotiated. My current research expands on this scholarship into a diasporic and transnational context, thereby exploring the transmission of war memories across distance and at intergenerational levels within South Asian literary and community narratives. Integral to this project are literary analysis, community narratives, and oral history.
Academic History
Faculty of Humanities, McMaster University, Canada
Dissertation: “Fragmented Memories: Muktijoddha Masculinity, the Freedom Fighter, and the Birangona-Ma in the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War”
Supervisor: Dr. Chandrima Chakraborty
Defense Performance Report: Excellent
Monograph with Routledge: Shabnam, Shamika (September 2026) Remembering the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War: History, Memory, and Gender Routledge – South Asian Literature in Focus
University of Leeds, England
Thesis: “Examining and Analyzing the Complex, Shifting Identities of South Asian Women in Urban Society”
Supervisor: Dr. Sam Durrant
School of Arts, University of Leicester, England
Thesis: “The Ambiguous Representations of Subaltern Hindu Widows in Ancient Sanskrit Scriptures and Twentieth-Century Indian Novels”
Supervisor: Dr. Corrine Fowler
Faculty of Humanities, University of Pretoria, South Africa
Scholarly Works
Monograph
Shabnam, Shamika (2026) Remembering the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War: History, Memory and Gender Routledge - South Asian Literature in Focus | Series Editors: Goutam Karmakar, Puspa Damai, Payel Pal, and Deimantas Valančiūnas. Link: Routledge
Peer Reviewed Journal Articles
Chakraborty, Chandrima, and Shamika Shabnam (2025) Remembering to Forget: Wartime Mothers in Tahmima Anam’s A Golden Age South Asian Review, vol. 46, no. 4, pp. 454 – 468. DOI: 10.1080/02759527.2025.2511421
Shabnam, Shamika (2018) Gender, Religion and Partition: The Shifting Sītā in Chandra Prakash Dwivedi’s Pinjar Journal of Religion & Film, vol. 22, no. 2, pp. 1 – 37. DOI: 10.32873/uno.dc.jrf.22.02.04
Book Chapters
Shabnam, Shamika (2027) “Rethinking the Figure of the Kaviraj: The Historical and Literary Representation of the Traditional Healer.” South Asian Medical Humanities, Routledge, edited by Puspa Damai [Abstract accepted with an anticipated publication in 2027]
Shabnam, Shamika (2023) Speaking in Fragments: The Birangona - Mother’s Traumatic Memories of the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War Narratives of Trauma in South Asian Literature. Routledge, edited by Goutam Karmakar and Zeenat Khan. pp. 108 – 118. Link: routledge.com
Book Reviews
Shabnam, Shamika (2024) Modernist Traditions: Cultural Encounters between British and Bangla Modernist Fiction from 1910s to 1950s Critical Humanities, vol. 3, no. 1. Link: mds.marshall.edu
Shabnam, Shamika (2020) Place and Postcolonial Ecofeminism: Pakistani Women’s Literary and Cinematic Fictions – Shazia Rahman Postcolonial Text, vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 1 – 4. Link: postcolonial.org
Creative Works
Shabnam, Shamika (2020) “Stuck to the Tongue.” The Lamp: Creative Journal. Vol. X. [Poem]
Shabnam, Shamika (2019) “Stitches from the Past.” TRANSverse Journal. Iss. 18. [Poem]
Funding & Awards
Teaching Experience
Instructor
Department of English, Faculty of Humanities
- ENGL 109: Literature and Contemporary Culture (2025 – 2026)
- ENGL 103: Introduction to Literature (2025 – 2026)
- ENGL 100: University Writing Strategies (2024 – 2025; 2025 – 2026)
South Asian Humanities, Department of Historical Studies
- SAH200: Being Human in South Asia (2024)
Gender & Social Justice Program | English & Cultural Studies Department | Linguistics & Languages Department
- LINGUIST 4G03/GENDRST 6G03: Language, Sex, and Gender (2024) [Graduate and Advanced Undergraduate Course]
- GENDRST 1A03: Gender, Race, Culture, Power (2023)
- ENGLISH 3A03: Critical Race Studies (2021)
- ENGLISH 3V03: Global Anglophone Literature and Film (2020)
Teaching Assistant
English & Cultural Studies Department | Communications & Media Studies | Labour Studies Department | Global Peace & Justice Department | Integrated Business & Humanities Program
- IBH 3AA3: Relationship Management (2023)
- LABRST 2W03/PEACJUST 2B03: Human Rights and Social Justice (2021)
- ENGLISH 3V03: Global Anglophone Literature and Film (2019)
- ENGLISH 3A03: Critical Race Studies (2018)
- ENGLISH 2RW6: Reading and Writing Criticism (2016 – 2017)
- ENGLISH 1AA3: Longer Genre (2016)
- CMST 2H03: Gender and Performance (2015)
Professional Experience
The Harbinger Award Committee, Capilano University, Canada
- Collaborated with faculty and committee members to review undergraduate student essay submissions for “The Harbinger Award” given to two students with exceptional scholarly essays
- Evaluated student essays based on coherence in argument formation, originality, and academic merit
- Participated in the selection of prize-winning submissions through collaborative decision-making process
- Supported and encouraged student writing and scholarship
Canadian Association for Postcolonial Studies, Canada
- Managed the end-to-end organization, coordination, and execution of roundtable and panel events to facilitate the exchange of dialogue and discussion among scholars and subject matter experts
- Established interactive learning spaces for both Canadian and international researchers, historians, policy analysts, and key stakeholders, connecting with each other through collaborative partnerships
- Facilitated public consultations and executive panel events, raising awareness on issues relevant to socioeconomics, public policy, public administration, and sociology within the Canadian context
- Applied equity, diversity, and inclusion while working with contributors from various intersectional backgrounds and lived experiences, promoting decolonial ideals of collaborative research work
- Initiated decision-making on conference proposals, budgets, briefing materials and process improvement measures to ensure events run smoothly
McMaster University-Gandhi Peace Festival (GPF) Conference, Canada
- Communicated and connected with a range of activist societies, youth associations, and community organizations and coordinated their recruitment as speakers and guests at the GPF Conference
- Coordinated conference and speaking logistics, through steady communication and prioritized accessibility requirements in order to ensure streamlined operation
- Facilitated the “Re-thinking Dominant History & Institutional Learning” panel to stimulate critical discussions
- Delivered adept organization through recording attendance of presenters, distributing lanyards and programs to speakers, and setting-up lunch items according to dietary needs
Anti-Racism Working Group, McMaster University, Canada
- Engaged graduate peers and faculty in conversations and knowledge exchange on intersectional belonging and the politics of spatial mobility to raise critical social awareness among members
- Exhibited an understanding of the complex ways in which BIMPOC (Black, Indigenous, Multiracial, and People of Colour) students navigate social spaces through the sharing and exchanging of lived experiences
- Organized and coordinated a “Lunch & Learn” session for members with the Director of The Global Peace & Social Justice Program, Dr. Chandrima Chakraborty
Public Scholarship & Scholarly Outreach
“Remembering the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War: History, Memory, and Gender.” Monograph shared with The Office of Mayor Olivia Chow, City of Toronto, Government of Canada.
“Remembering the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War: History, Memory, and Gender.” Invited Book Talk, Centre for Comparative Muslim Studies, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, British Columbia, November 18, 2026. Discussant: Parboti Roy, Ph.D. Candidate in Asian Studies, University of British Columbia. Forthcoming.
“Remembering the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War: History, Memory, and Gender.” Invited Community Presentation, The Mango Set: Under the Mango Tree – We Gather Again, Pickering, Ontario, August 29, 2026.
Conference Presentations
“‘The Bloodied Pond’: Women’s Testimonies of Environmental Risks and Wartime Atrocities During the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War.” Canadian Association for Postcolonial Studies, Toronto Metropolitan University. 2025
“The Patriotic Mother and Memories of the Birangona-Ma During the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War.” Canadian South Asian Studies Association, Congress, George Brown College. 2025
“Narrating the Self: The Multifaceted Stories of Women Wartime Survivors of Sexual Violence During the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War.” Canadian South Asian Studies Association, Congress, McGill University. 2024
“Marginalized Women in Bangladesh Garment & Textile Industries: Their Voices and Testimonies.” Honouring International Women’s Day Conference, University of Guelph. 2022
“The Birangona-Mother’s Embodied Trauma & Fragmented Memories.” Canada India Research Graduate South Asia Conference, University of Guelph. 2022
“Women’s Testimonies, Activism, and Solidarity.” Canadian Association for Postcolonial Studies, Kwantlen Polytechnic University. 2022
“Genocide and the Woman in the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War.” Women’s and Gender Studies et Recherches Féministes, Congress, University of Alberta. 2021
“Music Nationalism in the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War.” Canadian University Music Society, Congress, University of Alberta. 2021
“Rewriting Gender through Visual Culture: The Liberation War Woman in Guerilla.” Film Studies Association of Canada, Congress, University of British Columbia. 2019
“Unspeaking Nationalism Through the Body.” Canadian Association for Postcolonial Studies, Congress, University of British Columbia. 2019
“Diasporic Bodies, Queer Memories.” Canadian Association for Postcolonial Studies, Congress, Toronto Metropolitan University. 2017
“Mapping the Ineffaceable: Flesh and Paper as Inscriptive Sites of Pain.” IABA – Americas Conference, York University. 2017
“Polysemic Motherhood and the Inedible Stain: Partition and the Shifting of Female Identity.” Symposium on Gender Issues in India, York University and Guelph University. 2016
“Food, Palatability and Socio-Political Discourses around the 1985 Air India Tragedy.” History, Memory, Grief: A 30th Air India Anniversary Conference, McMaster University. 2016
“The Ambiguous Representations of Subaltern Hindu Widows.” Annual Master of Arts Conference, University of Leeds. 2014
Vox Populi Presentations
“Discourse Analysis and Archival Research Methods: Postcolonial South Asian Theory and Culture.” English & Cultural Studies Vox Populi 2022 Speaking Series, McMaster University. 2022
“Motherhood and the Indelible Stain: Partition and the Shifting of Female Identity in Chandra Prakash Dwivedi’s Pinjar.” English & Cultural Studies Vox Populi, McMaster University. 2017
“The Politics of Aesthetics: The Jyoti Sigh Rape Case.” English & Cultural Studies Vox Populi, McMaster University. 2016
“Rape, Renaming, and Identity in Post-Colonial Indo-Bengal and Bollywood.” English & Cultural Studies Vox Populi, McMaster University. 2015
Guest Lectures
Doors, Borders, and Displacement in Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West. McMaster University. 2019
Past and Present: Fragmented Memories in Can You Hear the Nightbird Call? McMaster University. 2018
Stories, Journeys, Identities: The Community & Diaspora. McMaster University. 2017
Bangladesh and the Partition Memories of 1971. University of Nottingham. 2017
Multiple Narratives and the Diaspora: A Reading of Shani Mootoo’s “Out on Main Street”. McMaster University. 2017
Bollywood/Hollywood: Queer Cinematic Representation and the Perils of Translation. McMaster University. 2015
Journal Peer Reviews
Field Research & Travel
Bangladesh
Conducted archival and site-based research on memory, trauma, and representations of the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War. Field research sites include:
- Bangabandhu Memorial Museum, Dhaka, Bangladesh
- Dhaka University Central Library, Dhaka, Bangladesh
- Liberation War Museum, Dhaka, Bangladesh
- National Martyrs’ Monument (Jatiyo Smriti Soudho), Savar, Bangladesh
Languages
Creative Outputs & Digital Archives
Link: youtube.com
- Producing and Co-hosting digital content which focuses on academic and non-academic career trajectories and navigating the current job market
- Using storytelling and personal narratives and anecdotes to establish an affective connection with viewers
- Managing end-to-end production, including scriptwriting, branding, editing, and promoting
Link: instagram.com/researchdoc89
- Creating short educational videos that communicate my research to a broad audience, making complex historical and theoretical concepts accessible and engaging
- Facilitating knowledge transmission and public engagement on understudied literary texts, artistic materials, and historical events
- Cultivating an online community interested in postcolonial South Asian literary, artistic, theoretical, and historical discussions
Poetry Performances
- Rare Birds of Mac 2 Virtual Poetry Performance. Department of English & Cultural Studies, McMaster University. 2021
- Spoken Poetry Performance. Night of Poetry at Grain & Grit, Hamilton, ON. 2020
- Spoken Poetry Performance. International Student Coffee House, Student Success Centre, McMaster University. 2019