fiction/non/fiction10 Apr 2025

S8 Ep. 28: Sheila Sundar on International Scholars

Following ICE’s detention of Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil and the sudden revocation of hundreds of student visas across the country, professor and novelist Sheila Sundar joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to talk about the targeting of international university students, especially those involved in pro-Palestine speech or protests, by the Trump administration. Sundar reflects on a childhood spent partly among intellectuals travelling between countries, and explains how this led to her recent novel, Habitations, in which the protagonist leaves her home in South India for graduate school at Columbia. Sundar discusses international students’ contributions to American intellectual life and how the current assault on diversity damages academia. She also talks about how work-restrictive policies treat international students as “takers” who are not welcome to integrate fully into American society. Sundar reads from Habitations.

To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/.

This podcast is produced by V.V. Ganeshananthan, Whitney Terrell, Hunter Murray and Vanessa Watkins.

Selected Readings:

Sheila Sundar

Habitations (2024)
Yellow Curtains The Massachusetts Review (2023)
Diplomacy Virginia Quarterly Review (2022)
The Death of Tyler Clementi The Threepenny Review (2021)

Others:

Meghan O’Rourke on The End of the University, Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 8, Episode 27
Nearly 150 Students Have Had Visas Revoked and Could Face Deportation - The New York Times
Secretary of State Marco Rubio Remarks to the Press
Trump Immigration Policies Increase Peril For International Students

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