Biography

Vijayalakshmi Rao, a specialist in Francophone literature, is a professor at the Center for French & Francophone Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University, where she teaches Quebec literature, Francophone literature from the Indian Ocean region, and the portrayal of India in French literature.

She holds a Bachelor's degree, a Master's degree in Philosophy, and a PhD in French literature, all from JNU, and her dissertation focused on the work of Quebec writer Michel Tremblay. She also served as director of the Center for French & Francophone Studies at JNU from 2009 to 2011 and was a visiting professor at the Universities of Paris VIII and Rouen. Her research focuses primarily on Francophone literatures, Quebec studies, French-language Indian literature, as well as issues of memory, displacement, and cultural citizenship. She has led several international research projects and supervised numerous dissertations and theses. Her commitment to the development of Quebec studies in India has also been recognized with the 50th-anniversary medal from the Ministry of International Relations and La Francophonie, awarded by the Government of Quebec.

Among her major publications are Écriture indienne d'expression française (2008) and Reaching the Great Moghul: Francophone Travel Writing on India of the 17th and 18th Centuries (2010). She co-edited two issues of Synergies-Inde: “Inde-Québec : regards croisés et rencontres francophones” (2008) and “Ville et genre : perspectives postcoloniales” (2021). Together with Hélène Amrit, she co-edited L’Extrême contemporain en littérature et culture québécoises (2020). She was a member of the editorial team for Displacement and Citizenship: Histories and Memories of Exclusion (2019).

Collaboration with IHRIM

Vijayalakshmi Rao’s invitation is part of the partnership established between JNU and ENS de Lyon in 2013 to foster academic and educational exchanges between the two institutions. Her visit will help strengthen existing collaborations on Indian and postcolonial literature, especially with Vanessa Guignery and the IHRIM research unit. Her current research focuses on the concept of precariousness in contemporary Indian and French fiction, through the study of representations of marginalized minorities, migrants, and refugees.

This project aligns with IHRIM’s research focus “Norms, Canons, and Their Critiques,” which explores issues of hierarchies, exclusion, resistance, and the construction of social and cultural categories. Vijayalakshmi Rao’s visit will foster the development of new academic collaborations and benefit students, doctoral candidates, and faculty members working in comparative, French, English-language, and postcolonial literature.

Vijayalakshmi Rao will deliver the following three lectures:

• “The Other Side of Gulf Migration: Precarity of Labor in Contemporary Indian Literature,” October 6, 2026, 3:30–5:00 p.m., D2-018
• “The Arab Spring and the Guest Worker’s Saga in Contemporary Indian Fiction,” October 13, 2026, 3:30–5:00 p.m., D2-018
• “Littérature francophone contemporaine de Pondichéry ou ‘écrire d’en bas’”, October 20, 2026, 3:30–5:00 p.m., D2-018

Major publications

• Écriture francophone contemporaine : Québec et Inde, (co-edited with Mohar Daschaudhuri), New Delhi, Langers International, 2025.
• Special issue “Ville et genre : perspectives postcoloniales”, Synergies-Inde, (co-edited with Vidya Vencatesan) n°10, 2021.
• L’Extrême contemporain en littérature et culture québécoises, (co-edited with Hélène Amrit), Interfaces Brasil/Canada, vol. 20, December 2020.
• Displacement and Citizenship: Histories and Memories of exclusion, New Delhi, Tulika Books, Dec. 2019. [This volume was co-edited with Mallarika Sinha, Shambhavi Prakash, and Papori Bora.]
• Langue étrangère et autres poèmes, de Ranajit Sarkar, New Delhi, Daastaan, 2012. [Publication of the poetry collection, including an introduction. This work is part of Vijayalakshmi Rao’s research on Indian literature written in French.]
• Reaching the Great Moghul. Francophone travel writing of the 17th and 18th centuries, New Delhi, Yoda Press, 2011. [This bilingual book brings together contributions from scholars on European travelers in India.]
• Écriture indienne d’expression française, New Delhi and La Réunion, Yoda Press/Le Germ, 2008. [This book is the result of nearly ten years of research. The texts included in this anthology come from the former French and Portuguese trading posts in India.]