Newsmaker: Susan Andrade

Noteworthy: Will be in India from January to May 2014 on a Senior Scholar Fulbright-Nehru Award. She'll research at Christ University, exploring the concept of realism theory in contemporary Indian literature.

Age: 53

Residence: Regent Square

Occupation: Associate professor of English at the University of Pittsburgh, affiliated with the French and Italian departments and programs in African, Asian, cultural and women's studies.

Background: Andrade, born in Africa of Indian origin, writes literary analysis and criticism with a focus on postcolonial literature, as well as realism and modernism in African and Indian works. In 2011, she published “The Nation Writ Small: African Fictions and Feminisms, 1958-1988,” focusing on the writings of female African authors. Andrade has taught at Pitt for the past 20 years, with classes focusing on the historical connotations in novels and short stories from a global range of authors.

Quote: “I tell my students, ‘You can learn about history from a work of fiction, but it is not truth in a small ‘t' sense. It is truth in the large ‘T' sense.'”