Genuine Temporary Entrant Letter

Cultural studies is an interdisciplinary field that explores culture and its correlation with an
individual’s everyday experiences and social relations. It blends in different academic
disciplines, including literature, philosophy, anthropology, and many more. One of the central
concerns of cultural studies is the production of cultural knowledge, especially in relation to race,
class, and gender identities. I have been engaging myself in the field of cultural studies for
several years now, and needless to say, the deeper I delve into it, the more fascinating it appears
to be. And my fascination with this area has propelled me to pursue a Doctor of Philosophy from
the University of Technology Sydney in Sydney, Australia.

I sat for my Secondary School Certificate exam in 2009, and my Higher Secondary School
Certificate exam in 2011. Both in school and in college my background was in business studies.
My father is the executive director of a non-profit organisation named Development Wheel
(DEW). I presume part of me was interested in that realm, and I studied business at a young age
because of that. But my love for literature was always there. Both of my parents were avid
readers, and I grew up reading books. Turning over the pages of Gabriel GarcíaMárquez’sOne
Hundred Years of Solitude one day gave me somewhat of a moment of epiphany. When it was
time for me to decide what I wanted to study at university, I chose literature. In Bangladesh
students have to sit for central entrance exams for admission to universities. I decided to sit for
exams in arts and humanities. Eventually I got myself enrolled in the Department of English at
Jahangirnagar University, one of the top public universities in Dhaka, Bangladesh. From the
years 2011 to 2015, I focused on studying English literature, along with supplementary courses
on Bangla literature, literatures in English translation, history, philosophy, anthropology,
linguistics, and literary and cultural theories and criticisms.

After completing my Bachelor of Arts (Honors) in English Literature, with a CGPA of 3.71 out
of 4.00, I enrolled in the Master of Arts program in Literatures in English and Cultural Studies in
the same department of the same university. My mother is a professor at the Department of
Anthropology in Jahangirnagar University, and currently the dean of the Faculty of Social
Science. Since I often had conversations with my mother about different anthropological
thoughts and concepts, I was familiar with the discipline and was always intrigued by it. Cultural
studies, in a sense, allowed me to have the best of both worlds. It allowed me to stretch my
curiosity and critical thinking abilities towards other cultural phenomenon as well. My MA
thesis, titled “An Uncanny Affair: A Spectral Reading of Re/Search in A. S. Byatt’sPossession
and Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia”, explored two works of literature through the lens of a relatively
new perspective of critical thinking called Spectral Criticism. I completed my masters in 2016.
The results got published in 2017 and I had got a GPA of 3.72 out of 4.00. By the time I finished
my MA, I was certain that cultural studies was the area that I was going to engage in further. And
I was also certain that I was going to follow my mother’s footsteps and enter the world of the
academia.

In January 2018 I joined Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB), one of the most renowned
private universities in Bangladesh, as an adjunct faculty in the Department of English and
Modern Languages. I worked there till August 2018 and taught foundation courses on English
reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills, and business English.

In October 2018 I joined the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB), a prominent private
university especially in the field of liberal arts, as a full-time faculty member. I am currently
working there as a lecturer in the Department of English and Humanities. I have been teaching
several courses here, including Introduction to Poetry, Introduction to Novel, and Contemporary
World Literature in Translation. Along with supervising Undergrad and MA students’
dissertations and internship reports, I also advise Paper Canoe – ULAB Literary Society, and
supervises MUSE – Mouthpiece of ULAB Students of English. In the past year I have held two
workshops titled “Introvert Matters: a workshop for people who would rather not go to a
workshop” and “Weird Flex but OK: Let’s Talk about Memes”, moderated a students’ discussion
session on Abbas Khider's novel The Village Indian as part of Goethe Institut's Literary
Encounter program, and assisted in two conferences namely Marx's Bicentenary International
Conference on Language, Literature, Culture and Politics and 5th DEH Inter-University Student
Conference and Cultural Competition on The Romantic and the Gothic” as conference
committee member.

From the time I was studying at Jahangirnagar University, especially in the later years, I did
some independent research and wrote academic papers which I presented in several conferences,
both at home and abroad. The most recent conference I attended as a paper presenter wasthe
Sixth International ACGS Conference: Racial Orders, Racist Borders held by Amsterdam Centre
for Globalisation Studies at the University of Amsterdam in October 2019.My paper was titled
“Of Violent Delights and Violent Ends: A Postcolonial Reading of the Posthuman Condition in
Westworld”. One of my papers, “Pleasure and Pain: The Politics of Sexual Representation in
Hollywood Horrors”, was published in 2018 in The Journal of Social Studies, one of the leading
academic journals in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Another one of my papers, “Witches of Instagram:
Reclaiming, Redefining, and Restyling Witchcraft in the Twenty-First Century”, is due to be
published by the end of 2019 in NrvijnanaPatrika(Journal of Anthropology), a journal reputed
for containing current thoughts in anthropology and cultural studies.

Along with academic writing, I also kept my passion for literature alive, and continued writing
and translating. Several of my creative works have been published in books, newspapers,
magazines, literary journals, and webzines published from or based in Bangladesh. I keep a blog
roll on WordPress (https://anikashaharchived.wordpress.com/) where I archive my writings. I
have also been co-editing a cross-cultural literary webzine called Prachya
Review(https://www.prachyareview.com/) since September 2015. To strengthen my literary
abilities I completed a Creative Writing Certificate Course from the University of Liberal Arts
Bangladesh (ULAB), and travelled to New Delhi, India as a participant of the South Asian
Literature Festival, both in 2018.

As is evident form the titles of my papers, gender and sexuality has been a core area of my
academic research. I also wrote a column called Gender Talk in the daily newspaper Bangladesh
News published from Dhaka, Bangladesh from February 2018 to March 2018. The topic of my
PhD proposal focuses on a similar scope as well, through the perspective of Spectral Criticism
which I have worked on earlier. Titled “Placing the Spectral in Spectral Places: Bangladeshi
LGBTIQ Identities and Online Activism”, my proposal intends to explore one of the
considerably least explored areas of gender and sexuality in the context of Bangladesh. Most of
the Bangladeshi academic literature in this area is related to feminist criticism, but not as much
about queer theory and the issues related to the LGBTIQ identity. I believe that this research
would not only help me build upon my own knowledge and understanding but also would
contribute to the existing studies.

I chose Australia for my PhD because of the diversity and multiculturalism it contains. And I
chose UTS because it appeared to be an innovative academic space, and seemed eager to accept
interdisciplinary currents of thoughts. Another reason for me to choose UTS was my supervisor,
whose work I had been following eagerly, and was thrilled when he agreed to guide me. Having
my application accepted at this institution, and under his supervision, was a significant academic
milestone for me.

I have also been fortunate to have been awarded the International Research Training Program
Scholarship (IRTP)funded by the Commonwealth Government of Australia under the
Department of Education and Training. It will cover my tuition fees, living allowance, and
Overseas Student Health Cover (OHSC). If in any case I feel that I need further financial
assistance, that can be covered by my own savings and my mother’s, who is a PhD-holder herself
and has kindly agreed to be a sponsor for me.

One of the biggest motivations for me to pursue this degree is my job. As I have mentioned, I am
currently working as a permanent full-time faculty member at ULAB. ULAB prefers and
encourages its faculty to pursue higher studies, especially from overseas, and boasts to have a
very high number of PhD-holding academics. About all of my colleagues have either an MA,
MPhil, or a PhD from reputed institutions overseas, and it was in fact an exception that I had
been recruited without one. I believe that it is both a personal necessity and a professional one
for me to achieve the next step in my academic career. It will not only strengthen my expertise in
the stream of cultural studies, it will also enable me to seek a promotion at my workplace from
the position of lecturer to senior lecturer. It will increase my salary scale, which is currently
around 71,000 BDT, and will allow me to teach courses that are more in line with my interest
and knowledge. ULAB has been very understanding in my endeavor, has made no objections,
and has kindly agreed to grant me study leave. I believe that my experience at UTS, and at
Australia, would give me a global perception to contribute to local issues which I will be able to
bring back and develop further.

I hope that on reviewing my application and supporting documents the authority would be
convinced of the same.