Professor Modhumita Roy loves coffee - it is her lifeline, and she drinks it every day. She's passionate about 19th century literature, and she likes to talk too, leaning in when she gets excited and drawing demonstrative circles with her hands when she's making a point.
But it was another love - her love of cricket - that helped her analyze the gender inequality that she experienced as a child in India.
"I follow [cricket] insanely," she said. "Until age seven I was allowed to play cricket with the boys and then I was not ...You [can't] not understand that you are being discriminated against."
Roy, a faculty member of the English Department and the Director of the Women's Studies Program at Tufts, was born in Kolkata, India, where she studied at the University of Kolkata before obtaining her Ph.D. in the States.
She was the first in her family to leave Kolkata during a time when it was very uncommon for Indian students to come to the United States to study English.
"I thought I'd do it for a lark," she said.
For Roy, the move to America triggered complex ideas about literature, gender and societal structure, allowing her to objectively reflect on her life in Kolkata.
"I did not know I was a feminist, although I was one," she said of herself as a child.
This kind of subconscious feminism manifested itself for Roy during her graduate studies at Stonybrook University in New York, where the gender discrimination that had been masked by strict ideas of class in India was clarified by the experiences of her female American classmates.
"They often complained of the fact that they were not called upon in classrooms and ... [that ] their ideas were not taken seriously," Roy said. "They would not speak; it would be the men."
Roy, having attended a gender-segregated school in Kolkata, felt no such hesitation.
"I had no fear whatsoever of speaking up in class or challenging somebody," she said.
Attracted by Tufts' global focus and the attitudes of the English Department, Roy joined the ranks of the Tufts faculty in 1998, where she continues speaking up and challenging ideas in the classes she teaches.
Roy's love of English and feminist issues has allowed her to take an active role in multiple departments at Tufts. Currently she is teaching the course "Non-Western Women Writers," which is cross-listed in the English and women's studies departments. "I actually like teaching," she said. "I'm very passionate ... I want my students to learn to ask the hard questions."
In pursuing Women's Studies, the 19th century literature enthusiast said she finds that feminism has been receiving a "negative drumbeat" in certain circles.
But Roy is confident in the universal appeal of the values of feminism, and feels that most often even those who feel trepidation in naming themselves a feminist will find that "what they desire for themselves and for others is what feminism desires for all people," she said.
The self-described feminist also labels herself as a "pessoptimist" - despite her admittedly pessimistic current worldview, Roy does foresee an attainable future where feminism and women's studies will have succeeded.
"[I foresee a world where] we would have achieved equality ... [something that] would be transformative of all our lives, not just women," she said.
Dedicating a large portion of her time and effort to the subject, Roy believes women's studies is pertinent to both genders.
"[Women's Studies] opens up the world rather than shuts it down," she said.
Coming up for Roy in the women's studies program this year are faculty colloquiums, along with International Women's day in March.
"[International Women's Day] celebrates our achievements and our struggles," she said. "It is inclusive and celebrated around the world, so we are standing up whether we know it or not with thousands of people around the world."
When she's not organizing speakers and events in the name of gender equality, Roy conducts her own research. She is currently focusing on African culture and literature, including everything from the impact of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to the complex story told by Dr. Livingston's Indian Mulligatawny soup.
Currently her passion is in South Africa, where she hopes to return after the summer as a visiting fellow. She returns to Kolkata twice a year and is affiliated with the school of Women's Studies at Jadarpur University in the city.
Roy, studying women's issues in an international context, sees such global fluidity as immensely valuable.
"It's not just that we have the knowledge and then must impart it - we need to listen carefully and learn from other parts of the world," she said.
