Amena Ahmed is a doctoral student in the Department of English at the University of Chicago. She works on the early modern period, examining archival records and literary representations of cross-cultural contact between England and India, with a particular focus on the nexus of race, nation, and empire. Her research considers how this nexus operates in the context of a rapidly expanding global economic market and shifting geopolitical landscape, more broadly studying how race-making and nation-making were strategically developed into key tools of the British Empire. Although early modern literature is her primary focus, Amena is also interested in modern South Asian diaspora literatures, examining the construction of modern South Asian identities and homelands amidst the afterlives of colonialism.
Before coming to Chicago, Amena completed her Honours B.A. in English with minors in History and Classics from the University of Toronto.