Mahasveta Barua is an adjunct Assistant Professor at the University of Delaware, and has been Director of the Study Abroad program to India since 2009, as well as Director of Study Abroad programs to Belgium, France, and Netherlands since 2013. Originally from Assam, India, she earned her M.A. in English Literature from the University of Delaware, and her Ph.D. in English Literature from Temple University in Philadelphia. Though her original area of specialization was 18th Century British Literature, Professor Barua’s interests and scholarship include cultural studies, global studies, and women’s studies. Her programs in India include service components that allow students to work with underserved women and children. She has presented on a wide range of subjects such as Service and Study Abroad, Developing Global Outreach, and the role of Humanities in Globalization at NAFSA annual meetings and other global education conferences, as well as on the Tea Trade, and the Political Use of Myths and Fables at literary conferences. She has published writings on Indian women in Between the Lines: South Asian Perspectives on Postcolonial Identity and Culture, and on Indian literature in A Handbook of Indian Literature.

Since 2010, Dr. Barua has founded and organized the annual “Closing the Divide” conferences in New Delhi to bring together University of Delaware and other American students with Indian university students, faculty, non-government organization directors, corporate social responsibility personnel, and other experts in various areas. The seven annual conferences to date have focused on issues ranging from Social Movements for Women and Children (2010), and Crossing Borders through Service and Education (2011), to Closing the Gender Divide (2014), Global Mobility and Migration (2016), and Nativism, Nationalism, and Future Leaders (2017).

Dr. Barua is also a director of the consultancy Glocal Service Partners, through which she organizes programs that combine service learning with traveling.