Cornell University Goldwin Smith Hall

By Jonathan McCormack

Sandhya Shukla ’88, a professor of English and American Studies at the University of Virginia, presented her ideas of “Cross-Culturalism” on Thursday afternoon in Goldwin Smith Hall.

In the talk, she examined Harlem, New York and other heterogeneous communities to study how different cultures interact.

Shukla shared that she was drawn to pursue this research when she was living on the edge of Harlem, “trying to understand what a response would be to the forces of gentrification.” She continued in explaining that “Harlem is a vital space of movement and mixture, where it was interesting to see how cultures interact.

Throughout her career, Shukla has published several books and articles analyzing how cultures arrive and interact in Western societies, including the United States. Shukla authored “India Abroad: Diasporic Cultures of Postwar America and England,” discussing Indian diasporas in England and the United States after independence from the British in 1947.

Shukla received her Bachelor’s degree in 1988 from Cornell University, as well as her Ph.D. from Yale in 1998. Today, she teaches English and American Studies classes at the University of Virginia.

The event was hosted by five departments in the College of Arts and Sciences. Shukla presented Harlem as a cultural melting pot, a location that draws people from different places and backgrounds together.

Shukla opened by explaining why cross-culturalism was relevant today.

“Cross-culturalism is a set of ideals,” she said. “It is about grief and hope. We live in a world of borders, turmoil, and misunderstanding, but cross-culturalism promotes the idea that we can have conversations that bring us together.”

Her work examines Black and Asian communities, exploring how Harlem shows that borders can become bridges.

To read the entire article: https://www.cornellsun.com/article/2025/10/professor-author-sandhya-shukla-88-discusses-cross-culturalism-in-harlem-new-york

Photo credit: 颐园居, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons