Purvi Shah is the author of a poetry collection, Terrain Tracks (New Rivers Press, 2006), which won the Many Voices Project prize and was nominated for the Asian American Writers’ Workshop Members’ Choice Award in 2007. Shah, who holds an M.A. in American Literature from Rutgers University and a B.A. in Anthropology and Comparative Literature from the University of Michigan, is a former poetry editor of the Asian Pacific American Journal and the recipient of a Virginia Voss Poetry Award from the University of Michigan.

She has taught a host of literature classes including courses focused on gender and genre, poetry, South Asian American literature, and American literature. She has produced book reviews, articles, and encyclopedia entries on contemporary Asian American writers as well as authored articles related to community activism.

Shah, the winner of the inaugural SONY South Asian Social Services Award in 2008, brings to the classroom a background in community activism. She is a content expert in violence against women, language access, policy advocacy, and media including non-profit film and website communications. She currently serves as a consultant to a number of non-profit organizations including Kundiman, a group dedicated to furthering Asian American poetry, as well as agencies working to address gender violence. Furthermore, she is currently a co-chair of Justice Speaks, a New York City-based initiative to further language access in the justice system.

For nearly eight years, Shah served as the executive director of a South Asian women’s anti-domestic violence organization. Through her leadership, she enabled increased language access in New York State and enhanced approaches to ending violence. She has been asked to provide expert commentary on violence against women and/or the South Asian community in interviews conducted by CNN, WABC in New York City, New York Times, New York Newsday, WNYC, and a range of ethnic broadcast and print media including GEO TV, India Abroad, Indian TV, New Delhi TV, SONY, and TV Asia. She has also served as a board member and program committee chair for the New York Women’s Foundation.

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Fall 2011 Office Hours: Mondays from 3:00 - 4:00pm

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