Dear Alumni and Friends,

I am pleased to announce that Professor Purnima Mankekar of the Department of Asian American Studies and Gender Studies is the 2013-14 recipient of the C. Doris and Toshio Hoshide Distinguished Teaching Prize in Asian American Studies at UCLA.

Professor Mankekar has published widely, including the critically acclaimed, Screening Culture, Viewing Politics: An Ethnography of Television, Womanhood and Nation in Postcolonial India and the forthcoming, Unsettling India: Affect, Temporality, and Transnational Public Cultures. She has co-edited, Media, Erotics, and Transnational Asia as well as guest editing a special issue of the leading publication, Journal of Asian Studies.

Professor Mankekar's research has been honored by fellowships from the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore, the Fulbright Senior Faculty Research Award, the Stanford Humanities Center, and the Radcliffe Institute for Advance Study at Harvard University. Professor Mankekar received her Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Washington.

As a teacher, Professor Mankekar has developed courses in areas such as transnational media, postcolonial critique, feminist theory and ethnography, and South Asian studies. A faculty colleague noted that Professor Mankekar has strengthened the Department of Asian American Studies through her wide-ranging and innovative courses and also played an important role through the teaching of core courses for graduate students. "The students have benefitted tremendously from Professor Mankekar's expertise in media studies and popular culture, and her sensitivity to gender issues." One student in support of her nomination commented: "Dr. Mankekar has been one of the most dedicated professors I have ever had, in both my undergraduate and graduate academic careers. Her passion for teaching and mentorship is unparalleled, and she has been the most valuable academic relationship that I have cultivated at UCLA." Another student stated: "Purnima conducts her seminars with a pedagogy of ethics and grace that I found refreshing, crucial to my development not just as a young scholar but as a young educator as well. Professor Mankekar taught my Asian American Studies cohort their methodologies core class, which was engaging, challenging, and productive in a way that was nurturing as well."

Professor Mankekar has been active in the Asian American Studies Center since joining the UCLA faculty in addition to her service to the Departments of Asian American Studies and Gender Studies. She has often served on selection committees for student fellowships, scholarships and academic prizes. In addition, faculty colleagues have expressed both appreciation and admiration for her presentation of her current research projects in South Asian and diasporic studies.

The late C. Doris Hoshide, Class of 1934, established the teaching prize to recognize an outstanding professor in Asian American Studies. She and her husband were longtime supporters of Asian American Studies at UCLA. The Hoshide Prize includes a one thousand dollar award.

Please join me in congratulating Professor Mankekar!

Sincerely,

David K. Yoo
Director & Professor