Dr Manjeet Ridon

Dr Manjeet Ridon is a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, which was awarded for her strategic leadership in international Higher Education and across a number of areas, including teaching and learning, international partnership developments and Transnational Education (TNE).

Dr Ridon is the Associate Dean International for the faculty of Arts, Design and Humanities at De Montfort University (DMU) and currently undertaking a secondment as the Head of DMU London, with responsibility for the set-up and launch of DMU’s London campus. This is an exciting new campus development that will open in April 2025 and will focus exclusively on delivering high-quality postgraduate education in the heart of London.

Previously, from 2019-2022, Dr Ridon was instrumental in the set-up and launch of DMU Dubai in the UAE, and DMU's first overseas branch campus development. During this time, as both the project and academic lead, and as the  inaugural provost (2021-2022), Manjeet led on the appointment of a teaching team, and ensuring the first academic year of the campus was a success.

Dr Ridon is also the institutional lead for developing strategies for embedding sustainability and employability in international partnerships and TNE activity. As a member of the University’s Sustainability Committee, Dr Ridon works closely with the DMU Sustainability team and has delivered on carbon literacy initiatives with international students and external businesses and university partners. Dr Ridon is a Carbon Literacy facilitator and trainer and has delivered training and taster sessions with DMU students and staff.  When Dr Ridon was leading the DMU Dubai campus project and as provost of the Dubai campus she led a training initiative for all academic staff teaching at the campus and students at the campus to undertake carbon literacy training. The success of this initiative led to the Dubai campus achieving bronze status accreditation from the Carbon Literacy Project, https://carbonliteracy.com/

Dr Ridon is the chair of the DMU India Advisory Board, which facilitates structured engagement between the University, and Indian businesses and institutions based in India, and British business in the East Midlands. As chair of this Advisory Board, she oversees special initiatives for international students from India and staff at De Montfort University, who have a vested interest in India. For example, student-led celebrations to mark India’s 75^th anniversary of independence. As Chair of this Advisory Board, Dr Ridon also welcomes partnership opportunities with other institutions in the Leicestershire region who have an interest in India, and thereby ensure DMU is able to fulfil its civic mission of representing the wider Indian community in Leicester.

Recently, as a member of the Decolonising DMU Expert Group, Dr Ridon contributed to the creation of a Staff Toolkit  This toolkit is for staff interested in adapting their teaching for international students with reference to the Decolonising DMU programme – a programme which aims to reduce racial disparity and promote cultural diversity in higher education - and supporting academic activities to encourage an increased awareness of this institutional priority.

Dr Ridon’s research focuses mainly on literary and cinematic representations of myth in the literature and film of South Asian diasporic women writers and filmmakers in Canada and the USA. This specialised focus is contextualised within a wider interest in the contemporary cultural production of other ethnic and minority groups in North America, in particular the literature of African-American and Native American writers. Dr Ridon’s PhD was awarded prestigious funding by the Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and the Canadian Studies Foundation in the UK, and achieved at the University of Nottingham in 2015.

Dr Ridon has more than 20 years’ experience of working in international higher education and a TNE specialist, having worked at several universities in the UK and in positions based overseas, such as India and Uzbekistan.

Institute of English

Faccia, A., Ridon, M., “Feasible Blackboard implementations, challenging blended learning through agile Academic Learning Management Systems in Transnational Higher Education”, International Conference on Education Development and Studies, March 2022, pp1-7. 

2021-2022 Interdisciplinary approaches to UN Sustainable Development Goals – monthly lectures and workshops with DMU Dubai undergraduate students in law, interior design, with special focus on Gender Equality (SDG 5), Decent Work and Economic Growth (SDG 8), Reduced Inequalities (SDG 10), and Sustainable Cities & Communities (SDG 11) 

2021-2022 Decolonising DMU – delivering termly workshops with academic staff teaching at the Dubai campus in this DMU initiative, which aims to challenge racism and build an anti-racist university that creates fair outcomes for students and staff 

2021-2022 DMU Dubai – running a literature reading group with undergraduate law programme students, with termly guest lectures and literary analysis workshops

2019-2020 DMU BA (Hons) English Literature – gave lectures on two modules - Millennial World Fiction and American Literature

2016-2018 University of Westminster – ran a literature reading group with LLM students studying at Westminster International University in Tashkent (WIUT), Uzbekistan 

2013-2014 University of Nottingham - taught on first year BA American Studies (Hons) programme as programme and module leader with weekly lectures, seminars and tutorials

• Interdisciplinary approaches to teaching in International Higher Education
• Internationalisation
• Decolonisation in Higher Education
• African-American literature - 19th century and 21st century
• South Asian North American literature 
• Contemporary women's literature
• Postcolonial theories and Decolonisation studies
• Cultural studies and critical theory
• Transnational Education research

• Interdisciplinary teaching in practice – literature and Law, literature and English language teaching, and literature and Interior Design
• Slave narratives - Harriet Jacobs
• Millennium world literature - Margaret Atwood
• Myth and South Asian American literature - Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
• Decolonisation in HE

• PhD (2015) North American Literature
• PG Diploma (2009) Strategic Marketing Management (International)
• MA (2004) American Literature 
• BA (2000) American Literature

CONFERENCE PAPERS DELIVERED

• March 2021 – Advance HE Sustainability Symposium:  “Transnational Education: Towards Principles and Practices to address the UN Sustainable Development Goals” - presentation with Simon Bradbury, PVC International and Dr Andrew Reeves, DMU
• November 2020 - Decolonising DMU: Kimberlin Sessions: “Literature, Mythology and Storytelling: Cultural Insights and Connections in Chitra Divakaruni’s The Mistress of Spices”
• Sept 2019 Global Academy of Liberal Arts (GALA) Annual Conference 2019 – Claremont Graduate University, California, USA
• Sept 2018 Shanghai Institute of Visual Arts (SIVA) Annual Partnerships Conference 2018 – Shanghai, China 
• May 2016 History, Memory, Grief: A 30^th Air India Anniversary Conference – McMaster University, Ontario, Canada
• Jan 2015 Borders, Boundaries and Margins – SALA Annual Conference, Vancouver, Canada 
• May 2014 Myths in Culture Symposium – University of Leicester  
• Apr 2014 BAAS Annual Conference - University of Birmingham
• Dec 2013 Homeward Bound: Nation, Belonging and the American Home – University of Nottingham
• Sept 2011 BACS Literature Group – British Library Conference Centre, London

Conference Papers: International

March 2022 UN PRME 9^th Annual Forum and Conference, Dubai, UAE

• Interdisciplinary Approaches to the UN SDGs: Teaching Law and Literature at DMU Dubai
• Building Bridges through Sustainable Education

Sept 2019 Global Academy of Liberal Arts (GALA) Annual Conference 2019 – Claremont Graduate California, USA

May 2016History, Memory, Grief: A 30^th Air India Anniversary Conference – McMaster University,  Ontario, Canada

Jan 2015 Borders, Boundaries and Margins – SALA Annual Conference, Vancouver, Canada 

Conference Papers: National 

March 2022 International Conference on Highly Skilled Migrant Women and Leadership, DMU, Leicester, UK: “Highly Skilled Indian Women Academics in Dubai: Gendered Experiences and Identity Reconstruction”

March 2021 Advance HE Sustainability Symposium: “Transnational Education: Towards Principles and Practices to address the UN Sustainable Development Goals” – co-authored presentation with Simon Bradbury, PVC International and Dr Andrew Reeves, DMU

Nov 2020 Decolonising DMU: Kimberlin Library Sessions: “Literature, Mythology and Storytelling: Cultural Insights and Connections in Chitra Divakaruni’s The Mistress of Spices”

May 2014 Myths in Culture Symposium, University of Leicester: “Indian myths in Deepa Mehta’s Heaven on Earth”  

Apr 2014 BAAS Annual Conference, University of Birmingham: “American Dreams in Jhumpa Lahiri’s Unaccustomed Earth”

Dec 2013 Homeward Bound: Nation, Belonging and the American Home, University of Nottingham: “Home and belonging in Bharati Mukherjee’s The Management of Grief”

Sept 2011 BACS Literature Group, British Library Conference Centre, London: “Reading Canadian Identity in Margaret Atwood’s Fiction”

Organisation of Conferences

March 2022 UN PRME 9^th Annual Forum and Conference, Dubai, UAE – planned over 3 months (Jan-March) as the lead representative for DMU research team and collaborated with University of Dubai conference organisers, and UN PRME New York office colleagues

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• April 2021 – Guest lecture and invited speaker at University of Science & Technology, Beijing, China: “American Feminism in Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments”