Ajay Parasram
Ajay Parasram is a transnational, multigenerational byproduct of the British empire. He is an associate professor cross appointed to the departments of International Development Studies, History, and Political Science at Dalhousie University. Ajay’s research surrounds themes of the “colonial present” or how historical colonial entanglements such as colonial state formation and the calcification of structures like race, gender, class, and caste in the last four centuries continue to limit the possibility of collective liberation. He is currently researching the political economy of “improvement” and the morality of capitalism and colonialism in the mid-late 19th century, specifically in the imperial transition from slavery to indentureship. He is the author of Pluriversal Sovereignty and the State: Imperial Encounters in Sri Lanka which was awarded the Centre for Advanced International Theory (CAIT) Sussex International Theory Prize and the Best Book Prize by the Global Development Studies section of the International Studies Association. With Alex Khasnabish, he co-authored Frequently Asked White Questions (Fernwood Publishing, 2022) and he is currently writing a monograph for Fernwood Publishing entitled How To Talk To Your Racist Uncle expected to be published in 2026.
Ajay is a member of The Racialization of Asian International Students Collective.
