writer, theatre practitioner, scholar, educator
Hi, I’m Shailee.
I believe that art enables us to contemplate questions closely, albeit through the distance of an aesthetic lens. Paradoxically, it leads us to a better understanding of concepts, practices, and problems in society. Through my work, I explore how art and its creators may exploit this potential to challenge norms, amplify marginalized voices, cultivate empathy and understanding which ultimately, leads to social justice.
Shailee is a scholar-artist from India and is currently pursuing a PhD in Theatre and Performance Studies at Stanford University. Her research interests converge to illuminate narratives at the intersection of performance, literature, culture, and history. Through her doctoral work, she is investigating queer history and the politics of representation in South Asian theater and performance, with a particular focus on how it influences the public, political, and legal perception of non-normative identities and lifestyles in the subcontinent. Prior to this, she earned a double Master of Arts in English Literature and Drama from University of Delhi (2020) and McGill University (2023).
Since September 2023, Shailee has been working as an Archivist at Teesri Duniya, an intercultural theater company in Montreal dedicated to producing politically relevant plays. She is leading a project that seeks to curate, preserve, and digitize the theater’s history since its establishment in 1981 by two South Asian immigrants.
As a public intellectual, Shailee’s work has been published in Critical Stages/Scènes critiques (2023), Montreal Serai (2022), and Bombay Review (2020) to name a few. Her first YA graphic novel, “My Story, My Voice: Sita and Helen,” was published by Tulika Books, Chennai in May 2023 and launched in the western market at the Read Quebec Book Fair in November 2023. Her theater practice as a playwright and dramaturg has notably led to the development of two original plays: “Dancing Along the Rainbow,” written during Imago Theatre’s Nested Circles artist residency in 2023-24, and “From Troy to Lanka” which was developed and stage read during Teesri Duniya Theatre’s Fireworks Playwrights Program in 2022-23.
Shailee’s diverse oeuvre of work is based on an interdisciplinary approach and underscores her commitment to creating decolonized, diverse, and inclusive spaces. By engaging with notions of identity, gender, sexuality, race, migration and embodiment, she seeks to contribute to the production of a nuanced understanding of complex cultural narratives and expressions.
Explore her portfolio to see how her work bridges academic inquiry and artistic expression.