Smriti Verma

Smriti Verma is a second-year DPhil Candidate in English at Wolfson College, University of Oxford. Her research examines the construction of narrative form in contemporary women's autofiction to consider what insights it might bring to existing debates on narrative theory, women's writing, and the core issues which tie contemporary women’s authorship to self-narration. Her doctoral thesis studies narrativity as part of tangible feminist praxis in the works of Rachel Cusk, Deborah Levy and Doireann Ní Ghríofa, and seek to analyse the possibilities inherent in autofiction for reflecting upon the mechanisms of gender relations, power and feminist politics in the framework of the literary. She is also interested in women’s life-writing and questions of literary lineage and global feminist praxis.

Smriti previously completed an MA in English from Shiv Nadar University, where she worked as a Research and Teaching Assistant, and a BA (Hons) in English from Hansraj College, University of Delhi. At Oxford, she co-convene the Memory Studies Reading Group, funded by TORCH and affiliated with the OCLW, and volunteers with the Oxford Centre for Life-Writing (OCLW). Previously, she used to work as a gallery assistant at Akar Prakar and in the field of arts education with Slam Out Loud.