Professor Satendra NANDAN
BAHons, BEd (Delhi), MA Linguistics & ELT,
MA Commonwealth Lit & American Drama
(Leeds), Cert Uni Teaching (London), PhD
English (ANU)
Professor Satendra Nandan is a writer-academic and a former Parliamentarian and Cabinet Minister in Fiji. He was in active politics in Fiji from June 1978 - May 1987. In 1982 he was appointed the shadow minister for Education, Youth & Sports. In 1987 was appointed the Minister for Health, Social Welfare & Women’s Affairs in Bavadra Coalition Cabinet. Since 2006, he has made significant and signal contributions to the building of a New Fiji through the Peoples Charter and the National Council for Building a Better Fiji. It was through his submissions to the NCBBF that the Government of Fiji accepted a common name Fijians for all the citizens of Fiji.
Currently Dr Nandan is the Foundation Professor and Dean of The School of Humanities and Arts at The University of Fiji. He’s also the Director of the Gandhi-Tappoo Ashram for Peace & Ethics, Writing & Dialogue, an independent think tank. In December 2005, he resigned his Professorship at the University of Canberra to help establish The University of Fiji for the poor; his contributions have led to enduring and creative changes in the tertiary and political landscapes of Fiji.
Before accepting the invitation to join in The University of Fiji in February 2005, Satendra Nandan was Professor of English and Commonwealth Studies and Director of the University Centre for Writing, Media & Culture Studies at the University of Canberra, ACT. He was also the Head of School of Creative Communication, UC. He is also an Adjunct Professor at the ARC-funded Commonwealth Special Centre for Professional Ethics and Applied Philosophy, ANU, CSU and the University of Melbourne and the Research School of Humanities at the Australian National University. He has been an elected international Chair of the Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies (ACLALS), the largest tertiary association of English Studies in the Commonwealth, with a dozen regional branches world-wide, including in the US and Europe and the Foundation President of International PEN, ACT. He’s an Executive Member of the Commonwealth Round Table of Australia, chaired by Professor Anthony Low, former Vice-Chancellor of the Australian National University.
In December 2005, Satendra Nandan was awarded Professor Emeritus from The University of Canberra, thus becoming the first Professor Emeritus from Fiji. On February 11, 2005, Professor Nandan was a recipient of a special award for excellence for his services to the University by the Chancellor, Ms Wendy McCarthy, AO. In April he was invited to be an International Board Member, the European Centre for International Study of Literatures in English, CISLE, at the University of Innsbruck, Austria. In February 2005 he was nominated for an Endowed Chair at The State University of California; he, however, decided to join The University of Fiji.
Born in Nadi, Fiji, Satendra studied at Shri Vivekananda and Natabua High schools, where he won the Best all-round student prizes. He was awarded a Government of India Cultural Scholarship to study in Delhi. He has also taught in Delhi Public and Doon schools (Vikram Seth was one of his students!) and worked briefly at The Statesman, New Delhi. He has studied, under various scholarships and fellowships, at the universities of Delhi, Leeds, London and the ANU where he completed his doctoral thesis on ‘The Image of the Artist in the Fiction of Patrick White’ in 1977, thus becoming the first person to complete a PhD in English from the South Pacific.
From 1978 to 1987, Dr Nandan was deeply involved in the academic, cultural and political issues of the region, especially in Fiji’s multiethnic community. He also held, during this period, senior positions at the University of South Pacific including: elected member of Senate, the Chair of the University Research Committee; and the Director of Publications for the Girmit Centenary Council and its activities. He was the first local lecturer appointed at USP in 1969.
In 1979 he received an International Outstanding Young Person’s Award for his intellectual contributions to the community. In 1983, he was awarded a Leadership Training Grant to the USA, among several grants for writing and travel including a New Writer’s award from the Literature Board, Australia Council.
Professor Nandan is an award-winning writer and his publications include more than 15 books and numerous papers and articles on a variety of subjects: his latest books are Beyond Paradise (2010), Between the Lines (2009) and the The Loneliness of Islands (2007). He is working on a book on Gandhi: Ekla Chalo, Walk Alone, and a novel set in Fiji, Australia and India. His new book of short stories Sea-Shells on the Sea-shore will be published on Girmit Day, 15 May 2011. He has held visiting fellowships at several institutions including the Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla; Churchill College, Cambridge; Warwick University; University of London; Cumberland Lodge, Windsor; Wadham College, Oxford. He has travelled widely to give lectures and readings in the South Pacific, New Zealand, Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, South Africa, India, England, Scotland, Austria, Turkey, Spain, Canada, Jamaica and the US.
As the Foundation President of the Canberra Branch of International PEN, he is actively involved in human rights issues especially in the Asia-Australia-Pacific region. He has been elected Executive Member of the Canberra Word Festival, and was appointed a member of the ACT Cultural Council and chaired its Literature Committee. He is a regional Vice-President of the Asian Association for the Study of Australasia (AASA) and an active member of the Indian Association for the Study of Australia (IASA) and was Executive member of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature (ASAL). He has also been a judge for the Commonwealth Literature Prize for Fiction. He was invited to represent ACLALS at the CHOGM conferences held in Durban (1999) and Brisbane (2002) and Nigeria (2005).
On 31 August 1994, he was presented with the Australian Capital Territory’s prestigious Literary Award for ‘creative achievement to a literary artist’ by the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Education and Environment; in September 1996 he was given an Australian International Visiting Fellowship for travel by the Federal Government; on December 18, 1998, the Federal Minister for Communication and the Arts announced an Asia-Link award to Satendra for writing. In 1998 Satendra was featured in a book Extraordinary Talent; in 1999 he was selected as one of the fifty most Inspiring Australians at the fiftieth anniversary of Australia citizenship in a book A Fair Go – Portraits of an Australian Dream launched at Parliament House, Canberra. In February 2000 he was a recipient of the University of Canberra Vice Chancellor Don’s Award ‘in appreciation for outstanding service to the University’. He’s currently collaborating on a script for a film based on his much acclaimed novel The Wounded Sea, his autobiography Requiem for a Rainbow: A Fijian-Indian Story and Fiji: Paradise in Pieces. A 40-minute film was made on his life and work in 1996 for Doordarshan and Star TV. SBS, Australia, also featured him in its Books & Writing program on the publications of his novel, The Wounded Sea.
As a public intellectual and writer, he has read and commented on international media, including the ABC, the BBC, the FBC, NZBC, STAR, and Doordarshan, and written for many magazines and newspapers, locally and internationally.
Satendra Nandan is married to Associate Professor Dr Jyoti Nandan. They teach at The University of Fiji and live in Nadi, Fiji. They have three children: Rohan, Gitanjali and Kavita.
The University of Fiji, Private Mail Bag, Saweni, Lautoka, Fiji Islands Phone: (679) 664 0600, (679) 924 8846 (mobile) Fax: (679) 664 0700 Email: satendran@unifiji.ac.fj
