ABOUT MONICA Mody
Monica Mody, Ph.D., M.F.A., is a poet, educator, and theorist. She is the author of the full-length poetry collection Bright Parallel (Copper Coin), the cross-genre experiment Kala Pani (1913 Press), and three chapbooks including Ordinary Annals (above/ground press). She was born in Ranchi, India, and lives in San Francisco, ancestral homeland of the Ramaytush Ohlone peoples.
Monica comes to her writing and scholarship as a border-crossing and cross-genre practitioner. She received her Ph.D. in East-West Psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS), an M.F.A. in Creative Writing (poetry) from the University of Notre Dame, and a Bachelor of Arts and Laws (Hons.) from the National Law School of India University.
Monica's doctoral dissertation, entitled "Claiming Voice, Vitality, and Authority in Post-secular South Asian Borderlands: A Critical Hermeneutics and Autohistoria/teoría for Decolonial Feminist Consciousness," received the 2020 Kore Award for Best Dissertation in Women and Mythology awarded by the Association for the Study of Women and Mythology. The manuscript of what became her book, Kala Pani, was selected by Shelley Jackson for the 2010 Sparks Fellowship at the University of Notre Dame. Among other honors, Monica has been a recipient of a Center for Cultural Innovation grant, the Cultural Integration Fellowship Integral Scholarship (CIIS), the Zora Neale Hurston Award (Naropa University), and the Toto Award for Creative Writing.
Monica's poems have appeared in numerous literary journals including the Indian Quarterly, Almost Island, Boston Review, Poetry International, and Dusie, and in anthologies including The Penguin Book of Modern Indian Poets, Future Library: Contemporary Indian Writing, Witness: The Red River Book of Poetry of Dissent, Hibiscus: Poems that Heal and Empower, and &Now Awards 2: The Best Innovative Writing. Readings and performances include Poetry with Prakriti; New Orleans Poetry Festival; Bengaluru Poetry Festival; the Trauma and Catharsis Symposium on Performing the Asian Avant-Garde; the Asian American Writers' Workshop; UC San Diego's New Writing Series; Delta Mouth Literary Festival; Noise Pop San Francisco. Her poetry has been a part of art shows including Rites of Passage: 20/20 Vision and the Popadum! art show.
Monica's critical work advances earth-based and decolonial feminist worldviews. Her academic writing has been published in The Land Remembers Us: Women, Myth, and Nature and Integral Review: A Transdisciplinary and Transcultural Journal For New Thought, Research, and Praxis. She has presented widely, including at the Parliament of World Religions, Symposia of the Association for the Study of Women and Mythology, Oakland Summer School, American Academy of Religion Western Region, and Association of Writers & Writing Programs Conference. See past and upcoming appearances here.
Monica is a Core Professor in the Mythological Studies Program at the Pacifica Graduate Institute. She also serves as adjunct faculty at the Women's Spirituality Program at California Institute of Integral Studies, and has taught as core faculty in the PhD in Visionary Practice and Regenerative Leadership Program at Southwestern College Santa Fe. She has studied and circled with elders, wisdom-keepers, and medicine holders from many earth-based and indigenous traditions, developing an interconnected worldview rooted in ancestral healing practices. A regular movement practice has helped her foster a resilient knowing of the body as a site for connection with vaster, more fluid energies. She has facilitated and been a part of women’s healing, griefwork, and community healing sessions, spaces, and circles. For the past nine years, she has been offering to the community traditional divinations based on the ways of the Dagara of Burkina Faso, as re-envisaged by Elder Malidoma Somé.
When living in New Delhi, Monica started Open Baithak, a multilingual poetry in performance series, and co-founded Riyaaz, a multi-genre writer's group that met fortnightly. She was involved with citizen movements including Voices Against 377 and the Nigah Queer Collective. At Breakthrough India, she learnt firsthand how the arts and media can be used to advance social justice. Her stint as legal researcher at the Centre for Feminist Legal Research helped Monica develop a grounding in feminist, cross-border, postcolonial approaches.
CERTIFICATIONS
Indigenous African Spiritual Technologies, Dr. Malidoma Somé
Kingian Nonviolence Conflict Reconciliation, East Point Peace Academy
Reproductive Justice in Action, Bay Area Doula Project
Striving for Excellence in Teaching Certificate, Kaneb Center for Teaching & Learning
The Sexuality and Rights Institute: Exploring Theory and Practice
Understanding Cinema, India Habitat Centre
Monica comes to her writing and scholarship as a border-crossing and cross-genre practitioner. She received her Ph.D. in East-West Psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS), an M.F.A. in Creative Writing (poetry) from the University of Notre Dame, and a Bachelor of Arts and Laws (Hons.) from the National Law School of India University.
Monica's doctoral dissertation, entitled "Claiming Voice, Vitality, and Authority in Post-secular South Asian Borderlands: A Critical Hermeneutics and Autohistoria/teoría for Decolonial Feminist Consciousness," received the 2020 Kore Award for Best Dissertation in Women and Mythology awarded by the Association for the Study of Women and Mythology. The manuscript of what became her book, Kala Pani, was selected by Shelley Jackson for the 2010 Sparks Fellowship at the University of Notre Dame. Among other honors, Monica has been a recipient of a Center for Cultural Innovation grant, the Cultural Integration Fellowship Integral Scholarship (CIIS), the Zora Neale Hurston Award (Naropa University), and the Toto Award for Creative Writing.
Monica's poems have appeared in numerous literary journals including the Indian Quarterly, Almost Island, Boston Review, Poetry International, and Dusie, and in anthologies including The Penguin Book of Modern Indian Poets, Future Library: Contemporary Indian Writing, Witness: The Red River Book of Poetry of Dissent, Hibiscus: Poems that Heal and Empower, and &Now Awards 2: The Best Innovative Writing. Readings and performances include Poetry with Prakriti; New Orleans Poetry Festival; Bengaluru Poetry Festival; the Trauma and Catharsis Symposium on Performing the Asian Avant-Garde; the Asian American Writers' Workshop; UC San Diego's New Writing Series; Delta Mouth Literary Festival; Noise Pop San Francisco. Her poetry has been a part of art shows including Rites of Passage: 20/20 Vision and the Popadum! art show.
Monica's critical work advances earth-based and decolonial feminist worldviews. Her academic writing has been published in The Land Remembers Us: Women, Myth, and Nature and Integral Review: A Transdisciplinary and Transcultural Journal For New Thought, Research, and Praxis. She has presented widely, including at the Parliament of World Religions, Symposia of the Association for the Study of Women and Mythology, Oakland Summer School, American Academy of Religion Western Region, and Association of Writers & Writing Programs Conference. See past and upcoming appearances here.
Monica is a Core Professor in the Mythological Studies Program at the Pacifica Graduate Institute. She also serves as adjunct faculty at the Women's Spirituality Program at California Institute of Integral Studies, and has taught as core faculty in the PhD in Visionary Practice and Regenerative Leadership Program at Southwestern College Santa Fe. She has studied and circled with elders, wisdom-keepers, and medicine holders from many earth-based and indigenous traditions, developing an interconnected worldview rooted in ancestral healing practices. A regular movement practice has helped her foster a resilient knowing of the body as a site for connection with vaster, more fluid energies. She has facilitated and been a part of women’s healing, griefwork, and community healing sessions, spaces, and circles. For the past nine years, she has been offering to the community traditional divinations based on the ways of the Dagara of Burkina Faso, as re-envisaged by Elder Malidoma Somé.
When living in New Delhi, Monica started Open Baithak, a multilingual poetry in performance series, and co-founded Riyaaz, a multi-genre writer's group that met fortnightly. She was involved with citizen movements including Voices Against 377 and the Nigah Queer Collective. At Breakthrough India, she learnt firsthand how the arts and media can be used to advance social justice. Her stint as legal researcher at the Centre for Feminist Legal Research helped Monica develop a grounding in feminist, cross-border, postcolonial approaches.
CERTIFICATIONS
Indigenous African Spiritual Technologies, Dr. Malidoma Somé
Kingian Nonviolence Conflict Reconciliation, East Point Peace Academy
Reproductive Justice in Action, Bay Area Doula Project
Striving for Excellence in Teaching Certificate, Kaneb Center for Teaching & Learning
The Sexuality and Rights Institute: Exploring Theory and Practice
Understanding Cinema, India Habitat Centre