Profile of Kareem Khubchandani

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF THEATRE, DANCE, AND PERFORMANCE STUDIES

Before even sitting down to talk to Kareem Khubchandani, I am dazzled by their Instagram and YouTube presence. From vibrant, glamorous looks to humorous yet critical performances exploring the complexity of gender and identity, Dr. Khubchandani’s art and research welcomes viewers in.

When I ask Khubchandani how they started a successful and inclusive career in drag, they explain, “When I moved to Chicago, as a way of getting to know people and making friends, I joined an LGBT South Asian organization. We were hosting a fundraiser, so I did drag there for the first time. It turned my world upside down because I started looking for pleasure and joy in South Asian worldmaking.” From that moment on, Dr. Khubchandani’s research interests combined with drag and body art performances. A major source of inspiration for their outfits, dances, and stories is the women who raised them, specifically their mother and older female family friends. According to Khubchandani, aunties such as these women were “excessive, joyful, and dangerous all at once. The aesthetics of excessiveness that you see on my Instagram, in my performances, or in my writing are informed by nightlife but also my own upbringing in these rich diasporic worlds.”

Dr. Khubchandani’s research, which takes place both in the U.S. and Bangalore, India, is available to learn from and interact with in a variety of media. In preparation for Khubchandani’s upcoming book project, Auntologies: Queer Aesthetics and South Asian Aunties, scholars and viewers may begin to explore the role of the auntie in South Asian sex, gender, and sexuality studies through an online asynchronous symposium, Critical Aunty Studies. Aunties are not only dazzling and powerful, but they can be necessary agents for social change, too.

Dr. Khubchandani lies on stage in a colorful outfit, holding a fan and looking off into the middle distance.

Besides the familial and cultural connection to the role of auntie, Khubchandani’s work builds upon generational power and the history of the LGBTQ+ South Asian community. “As an academic, we are taught to think very carefully about the history of ideas, and the way we practice that is through citation,” Khubchandani explains. “Differently, in performance communities, you’re supposed to say, ‘Look, I’m the first, I’m an innovator, I’m new, book me…,’ and what that does is forget that there are generations of artists before you who are doing work to make queer of color performances legible so that others might book you now. As a drag artist, ‘auntie’ is a way of me saying, ‘Look, there was something before,’” Khubchandani notes.

As Dr. Khubchandani does research at the intersection of performance art, diasporic lived experiences, and critical gender studies, they offer this unique experience to Tufts students through various courses—from Introduction to Queer Studies to Performance Ethnography to Foundations and Futures in Performance Studies. When asked about their favorite class to teach at Tufts, Dr. Khubchandani points to Critical Drag, noting, “Students held each other to the highest standard… They would give each other such beautiful feedback that everyone could see each other’s progress.” The final project for the course is a public performance in which the students showcase all they have learned about breaking free of the gender binary and self-expression as a mode of storytelling.

As I wrap up my conversation with Dr. Khubchandani, I begin to think about all of the budding scholars, performers, and people interested in exploring gender expression, and how this work— whether research or art—may be intimidating or overwhelming to some. Dr. Khubchandani—as a researcher, performer, and auntie—offers some brilliant advice: (1) “There’s no bad object of research. Something like nightlife feels like it is untouchable or frivolous or so ephemeral that it’s hard to study. There are, in fact, methods to study all of these strange things, whether it’s TikTok or clothing or games, and you can study them from different disciplines.” (2) “If you’re gonna do drag, always know your words for your lip sync—that’s the auntie in me being like, ‘This is the thing you need to do.’”

From studying diasporic expressions of gender and sexuality through nightlife to actively contributing as an artist and performer, Dr. Khubchandani invites us to challenge our preconceived notions of gender in non-Western societies and to look around—both in place and time—for the indelible legacies left behind.