Education

Ph.D.,Georgia State University
M.A., Georgia State University
B.A., Agnes Scott College

Biography

Moon Charania is a feminist scholar whose research explores the psychosocial dimensions of the lives of women of color; she investigates social, political, and intimate issues in relation to gender and sexuality, violence and care, racism and the diasporic experience. She is the author of Archive of Tongues: An Intimate History of Brownness (Duke University Press, 2023) and Will the Real Pakistani Woman Please Stand Up: Empire, Visual Culture, and the Brown Female Body (McFarland 2015). In her most recent book, Archive of Tongues: An Intimate History of Brownness, Charania investigates brownness through the provocation of the maternal – the effacing of the brown maternal and the abject, brown, maternal body are driving vexations in this book. Dr. Charania has given invited lectures on Archive of Tongues at the American Library in Paris, University of Paris, the London School of Economics, L'Euguélionne Feminist Bookstore in Montreal, as well as universities and bookstores throughout the US.  

Dr. Charania is currently Associate Professor of International Studies at Spelman College, the 2024-25 Anschutz Distinguished Fellow in American Studies at Princeton University, and a Fulbright Specialist Appointee to develop Feminist Studies Programs in the Global South. Her work has appeared in various top journals such as Meridians, Camera Obscura, Feminist Studies, Sexualities, among others. She has previously held fellowships at the Emory University Psychoanalytic Society and the Emory University James Weldon Johnson Institute for the Study of Race and Difference. Dr. Charania is currently working on a collection of personal essays which double as a portrait of the multiple moving parts of brown diasporic life in contemporary America.  

Courses Taught

• Girls
• Capitalism: A Ghost Story
• Race, Sex and Empire
• Regarding the Pain of Others
• Black Queer Studies
• Feminism, Sexuality, and Islam
• Senior Seminar

Research Interests

Publications

New Book: Archive of Tongues: An Intimate History of Brownness (Duke U. Press) 

News

Popular Publications, Review Essays, and Media Appearances:

2021 - “Brown Girls, White Feminism, and the Necropolitics of War.” Global Media Cultures Podcast. September.

2021 - “Jose Munoz, The Sense of Brown: A Review.” Society and Space, June 28.

2020 - “Is Massachusetts Shaming Divorced Parents?” Boston Magazine. November 25.

2018 - “Pride in Pakistan: An Interview with Moon Charania.” In Investigating Social Problems, 2^nd edition, Ed. Treviño, A Javier. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications. January.

2017 - “Campaign calls on colleges to end rape culture.” NBC News. November 15.