Dr. Debali Mookerjea-Leonard, a professor of English and world literature at JMU, emigrated from India in 1992 to get her Ph.D. and pursue a career in university teaching.
Her profile on JMU’s website impressively chronicles her many awards/fellowships, the five books she has edited, translated or written, and her multiple degrees of varying levels and subjects, but what it doesn’t tell you is her story.
I had the opportunity to talk with her in her top-floor office of the College of English building on the JMU campus, filled with plants, framed photographs of family, and sunlight streaming in from the window.
We had a rich, meandering conversation about her life, her family, and many other things that were kept off the record.
I benefited from hearing all she had to say as much as I benefited from taking one of her literature classes, and I figured some of you would, too.
Beginning in an unconventional and ironic way, this professional and intellectual powerhouse got its first jolt from a controversial figure: Mattel’s Barbie Doll.
“My grandfather, Debes Mookerjea, was working on the construction of dams and barrages in India and came to the United States to consult with engineers here,” Mookerjea-Leonard said. “When he returned to India, I was 5 years old, he brought with him a Barbie doll. And I wanted to go to the place where these dolls were widely available, because they were not available in India at this time. So that was that. That was the first time I thought about studying somewhere else.”
Education was always highly prioritized in the Mookerjea family, with her parents and paternal grandparents always pushing her to focus on their studies as they had done. When Mookerjea-Leonard was in 11th grade, she became serious about coming to the United States eventually.
After graduating with a B.A. in comparative literature from Jadavpur University and working towards her master’s degree, she took the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) and the GRE, and wrote to U.S. universities inquiring about scholarship or financial aid.
It was quickly made possible, through the University of Minnesota and an I-20 form, for her 5-year-old self’s Barbie inspired dreams to come true. She later moved to the University of Chicago.
Since being here, Mookerjea-Leonard’s name gained a “Dr.” on the front end and a hyphenated addition to her last name of Leonard, her American husband’s last name.
Past just an impressive life of overcoming barriers, such as an entire ocean, to pursue the life she wanted, Moojerjea-Leonard is an icon to young girls in India and America, and everywhere else, that your life can be anything you want it to. She chose an unconventional route of marriage within her own culture, as her parents planned to arrange her marriage prior to her transition to the U.S. She turned down their offers, made easier after an initial phone call with a suitor included an immediate inquiry into her cooking skills.
“I was determined to come, and whatever they were saying didn’t deter me. But you know, I have to acknowledge this, even in the 1990s, marriage was considered one of the most important events, if not the most important one, in a woman’s life. I mean, I remember my roommate’s mom calling her up early one morning and asking her, so what are you doing about getting married?” Mookerjea-Leonard said.
Mookerjea-Leonard met her husband in her Ph.D. program in Chicago, as they were both graduate students in South Asian studies. They chose not to have children, which she believes has allowed them both to be immensely productive and successful in their fields.
Mookerjea-Leonard’s main professional and personal interests center on women’s literature and the Partition of India, especially when in tandem. One of her favorite books is To Kill a Mockingbird, and its protagonist, Atticus Finch, is a character she deeply admires.
Mookerjea-Leonard’s initial childhood fascination with the Barbie doll was only kept up by getting a second version that could walk and talk. It didn’t take long for her to shift her focus to her own forward movement, and she hasn’t stopped since.
Her most recent honor was receiving an invitation from a very prestigious literary magazine, which she does not want to name, to translate a work of Bangla fiction for their upcoming issue on Indian writing.
Mookerjea-Leonard is currently working on a book tentatively titled, Literature and the Bangladesh Liberation War: Event, Memory, Metaphor.
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