Saba Pirzadeh is associate professor of English and environmental humanities. A Fulbright fellowship recipient, she completed her PhD in English and graduate certificate in Women and Gender Studies from Purdue University. She has published extensively in the areas of environmental humanities, climate crisis, resource extraction, petroculture, hydropolitics, interspecies relationality and socioecological justice. She helped to develop and implement the University's environmental studies minor. Her secondary research interests include popular culture and its articulation of the ideological and material realities of the postcolonial experience. She has been a research fellow at the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society (Munich) and Bucknell Humanities Center (Pennsylvania). Saba was a part of "The Next Monsoon: Climate Change and Contemporary Cultural Production in South Asia", an NEH research project led by Ifthikar Dadi (Cornell University) and Sonal Khullar (University of Pennsylvania). Her current project examines the intersections of anthropocentric violence, environmental rupture and justice in South Asian Anglophone narratives. She is an editorial board member of South Asia Research.
Peer-reviewed publications:
- Saba Pirzadeh and Tehmina Pirzada. “Entangled futures: Energy production. Ecospirituality, and Decolonial Hope in Indian Solarpunk Fiction.” Journal of Postcolonial Writing, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/17449855.2025.2552123
- “Environmental Futurities and Solastalgia in Global Speculative Fiction.” The Speculative Route: Futures from South and Southwest Asia and North Africa. Eds. Merve Tabur, Sami, Ahmad Khan. Routledge Press, 2025.
- “Partition Migration and Urbicide in Bapsi Sidhwa's Ice-Candy Man.” Art and Architecture of Migration and Discrimination: Turkey, Pakistan, and their European Diasporas. Edited by Esra Akcan and Iftikhar Dadi. Routledge Press, 2023.
- Saba Pirzadeh and Tehmina Pirzada. “Cinematic Empire and Nostalgia in Viceroy’s House and Victoria and Abdul.” The Journal of Commonwealth Literature, Jan. 2022, doi:10.1177/00219894211066444.
- “Popular Fiction.” The Cambridge Companion to Literature and the Anthropocene. Ed. John Parham. Cambridge UP, 2021.
- “Neoliberal Extraction and Aquatic Resistance in Helon Habila’s Oil on Water.” Journal of Postcolonial Writing.
https://doi.org/10.1080/17449855.2021.1886975 - "Postcolonial Development, Socio-ecological Degradation and Slow Violence in Pakistani Fiction.” Routledge Handbook of Ecocriticism and Environmental Communication. Ed. Scott Slovic, Swarnalatha Rangarajan and Vidya Sarveswaran. Routledge, 2019.
- “Topographies of Fear: War and Environmental Othering in Mirza Waheed’s The Collaborator and Nadeem Aslam’s The Blind Man’s Garden.” Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies 21.6 (2019): 892-907. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369801X.2018.1558090
- Saba Pirzadeh and Tehmina Pirzada. “Pakistani Popular Music: A Call to Reform in the Public Sphere.” South Asian Popular Culture 17.2 (2019): 197-211.
https://doi.org/10.1080/14746689.2018.1512702 - Saba Pirzadeh and Arielle McKee. “Arthurian Eco-conquest in Geoffrey of Monmouth, Wace, and Laȝamon.” Parergon 34.1 (2017): 1-24. doi:10.1353/pgn.2017.0000.
- “Children of Ravaged Worlds: Exploring Environmentalism in Paolo Bacigalupi's Ship Breaker and Cameron Stracher's The Water Wars.” ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment 22.2 (2015): 203-221. Oxford University Press.
https://doi.org/10.1093/isle/isu143 - “Persecution vs. Protection: Examining the Pernicious Politics of Environmental Conservation in The Hungry Tide.” South Asian Review 36.2 (2015): 107-120.
https://doi.org/10.1080/02759527.2015.11933020
"Topographies of Fear: War and Environmental Othering in Mirza Waheed s The Collaborator and Nadeem Aslam s The Blind Man s Garden." Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies 21.6(2019): 892-907. 2019
Saba Pirzadeh and Arielle McKee. "Arthurian Eco-conquest in Geoffrey of Monmouth, Wace, and La?amon." Parergon 34.1: 1-24. 2017 Reprinted as: "Arthurian Eco-conquest in Geoffrey of Monmouth, Wace, and La?amon." Classical and Medieval Literature Criticism Series: Volume 210. Ed. Jennifer Stock. Gale, 2020. (Invited for Submission)
"Neoliberal Extraction and Aquatic Resistance in Helon Habila s Oil on Water." Journal of Postcolonial Writing. 57:4: 513-524. 2021
Saba Pirzadeh and Tehmina Pirzada. "Pakistani Popular Music: A Call to Reform in the Public Sphere." South Asian Popular Culture 17.2: 197-211. 2019
"Persecution vs. Protection: Examining the Pernicious Politics of Environmental Conservation in The Hungry Tide." South Asian Review 36.2: 107-120. 2015
Saba Pirzadeh and Tehmina Pirzada. "Cinematic Empire and Restorative Nostalgia in Viceroy s House and Victoria and Abdul." The Journal of Commonwealth Literature 59(2-3): 145-159. 2022
"Children of Ravaged Worlds: Exploring Environmentalism in Paolo Bacigalupi s Ship Breaker and Cameron Stracher s The Water Wars." ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment 22.2: 203-221.Oxford University Press. 2015
Reading Ice: Indigenous Knowledge and Climate Change Adaptation in Uzma Khan s Thinner than Skin. (Forthcoming) (Invited for submission)
"Environmental Futurities and Solastalgia in Global Speculative Fiction." The Speculative Route: Futures from South and Southwest Asia and North Africa. Eds. Merve Tabur, Sami, Ahmad Khan. Routledge Press. 2025 (Invited for submission)
"Postcolonial Development, Socio-ecological Degradation and Slow Violence in Pakistani Fiction." Routledge Handbook of Ecocriticism and Environmental Communication. Ed. Scott Slovic, Swarnalatha Rangarajan and Vidya Sarveswaran. Routledge Press. (Invited for Submission). 2019
"Popular Fiction." The Cambridge Companion to Literature and the Anthropocene. Ed. John Parham. Cambridge University Press (Invited for Submission), 2021.
"Partition Migration and Urbicide in Bapsi Sidhwa s Ice-Candy Man."Art and Architecture of Migration and Discrimination. Eds. Esra Akcan and Iftikhar Dadi. Routledge Press. 2023 (Invited for Submission)
Work In Progress: Ruptured landscapes: Visualizing Eco-violence and Enmeshment in Postcolonial Novels.
"Glacial Melt and Nomadic Livelihood in Pakistani Fiction." Association for the Study of Literature and Environment, UK and Ireland, Biennial Conference. The University of Liverpool. 29 August-1 September 2023
"Environmental Othering in Mirza Waheed s The Collaborator and Nadeem Aslam s The Blind Man s Garden." South Atlantic Modern Language Association, 86th Annual Conference. Atlanta. 7-9 November 2014.
"Literary Waters, Petro-Violence and Ecological Ethics in Helon Habila s Oil on Water." Center for Comparative Literature Annual Conference. University of Toronto. Toronto, Canada. 23-24 February 2018.
"Ethno-nationalist Violence and Spatial Occupation in Kiran Desai s The Inheritance of Loss." DAKAM Conference. Istanbul. 24-25 February 2017.
"Urban Space and Terroristic Simmerings: The City Remapped in Mohsin Hamid s The Reluctant Fundamentalist and Uzma Aslam Khan s Trespassing." South Asian Literary Association Annual Conference. Chicago. 8-9 January 2014.
"Hot bodies, cooled bodies: Manufactured Air and Urban Governance in Postcolonial Literature." Association for the Study of Literature and Environment Biennial Conference. University of Maryland. July 8-11, 2025.
"Postcolonial Development and Ecological Violations in Mohsin Hamid s Moth Smoke." Canadian Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies Annual Conference. University of Alberta. 7-11 June 2021.
"Un-Naming the Environment: Disfixation of Representation in Amitav Ghosh s The Hungry Tide". Northeast Modern Language Association 2014 Convention. Harrisburg. 3-6 April 2014.
"Indigenous Knowledge and Climate Change Adaptation in Uzma Khan s Thinner than Skin." The Next Monsoon Conference. Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies. Cornell University. 27-29 October 2023.
"Climate Breakdown and Mourning in Amitav Ghosh s Gun Island." Environment, Justice, and the Politics of Emotion. University of California, Riverside. 27-28 April 2023.
"Storying Extinction: Loss, Migration and Death in Postcolonial Fiction" University of Sheffield, England. 7-8 July 2022.
"Hydropolitics in Helon Habila s Oil on Water." Northeast Modern Language Association Annual Convention. Philadelphia. 11-14 March 2021.
"Aesthetics, Colonial Nostalgia and Empire in Viceroy s House and Victoria and Abdul." Modern Language Association Annual Conference. Chicago. 3-6 January 2019
""No sir! Na janaab! Ehtesaab bas ehtesaab!": Pakistani Popular Music as Resistance." South Asian Literary Association Annual Conference. Austin. 5-6 January 2016.
"War and Re-imagined Landscape." 24th Annual British Commonwealth and Postcolonial Studies Conference. Savannah. 13-14 February 2015.
"South Asian Crime Fiction and Converging Climate Catastrophes." STREAMS: Transformative Environmental Humanities Conference. Stockholm. 3-6August 2021.
"Climatic Catastrophe and Ecocritical Awakening in Ship Breaker and The Water Wars." Ecomedia in the Anthropocene. Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (ASLE) Conference. University of California, Santa Barbara. 14-30 June 2018.
"Eco-dystopia and Agency in Young Adult Fiction." Northeast Modern Language Association Annual Convention. Pittsburgh. 12-15 April 2018.
"Militarized Geography: War Legacies and Ecological Precarity in post 9/11 Afghanistan." ASLE UKI/LAND 2 Conference. Sheffield. 6-8 September 2017.
"Marginalized Bodies and the Politics of Respectability in Shoaib Mansoor s Bol." 43rdAnnual Conference on South Asia. Madison. 17-19 October 2014.
"Narrating Unstable Futures: Interrogation of the Anthropocene and Planetary Climate Crisis in South Asian Fiction." Canadian Association for Postcolonial Studies Conference. Toronto Metropolitan University. June 1-3, 2025.
"Speculative Storytelling and Aquatic Futures in Asif Farrukhi s Stealing the Sea." American Comparative Literary Association Conference. May 29-June 1, 2025.
"Uneven Carpets of Green and Silver: Decolonial Hope Through Indian Solarpunk Narratives." Northeast Modern Language Association Annual Convention. La Salle University, Philadelphia. 6-9 March 2025.
"Resource War and Resistance in Nigerian Writing." Association for the Study of Literature and Environment, UK and Ireland, Biennial Conference. Northumbria University. 6-8 September 2022.
"(Post)colonial capitalism and ecological rupture in Kamala Markandaya s novels." The Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies Triennial Conference. Ryerson University, Toronto. 11-15 July 2022.
"Our Entangled Futures: Energy Production, Ecospirituality, and Decolonial Hope in Indian Solarpunk Fiction." Journal of Postcolonial Writing
Ecocide and Multi-species Endangerment in Amitav Ghosh s Gun Island.
Hot Bodies, Cooled bodies: Neoliberal Urban Restructuring and Manufactured Air in Postcolonial Fiction