Prior to joining the Ph.D program at Pitt in 2019, Apala earned her B.A and M.A. in English from Presidency University in 2015 and 2017 respectively, graduating top of her class in the M.A. program. Her research interests include postcolonialism, migration/diaspora and mobility studies, Indian Ocean literature, gender and sexuality studies, and graphic narratives. In working with literary representations of migration within the Indian Ocean world during the 19th and 20th centuries, Apala’s research is grounded in the global South. Her work attempts to engage with questions of imperial im/mobilities fostering transnational cultural connections and conflicts and review the postcolonial through the lens of the oceanic.