Jigna Desai is a professor in the Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies Department and Asian American Studies at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. Her research and teaching interests include women of color feminism, queer of color critique, critical university studies, critical disability and critical neural studies, and transnational feminism. Desai is the co-founder of the MN Youth Story Squad and on the MN Transform faculty leadership team for a $5 million Just Futures Mellon Grant. She has long worked to hold the University accountable to its commitments to racial justice through program building, mentoring undergraduate and graduate students of color, and transforming the relationships between University and its BIPOC publics. Her efforts have been recognized with the Association of Asian American Studies Excellence in Mentorship Award and the UMN Award for Outstanding Graduate and Professional Teaching.
