When institutions fail, who protects the people inside them? What if silence is more dangerous than speaking up?
Guest: Dr. Prerna Subramanian, Assistant Professor and Interdisciplinary Researcher
Host: Dr. Amanda Patterson Partin
Episode Summary
In this episode of La Rhetorica, Dr. Prerna Subramanian joins the podcast to discuss academic labor, institutional failure, and the emotional realities of teaching, writing, and mentoring in privatized higher education. Drawing from her experiences in Indian and transnational academic spaces, she reflects on how community becomes essential when institutions fail, how dissent is navigated under constraint, and why vulnerability functions as a rhetorical and pedagogical strategy.
The episode also explores academic writing as a site of fear, particularly for women and racialized scholars, and how editing, collaboration, and feminist mentorship can help writers reclaim authority and voice.
Institutional Context and Infrastructure
Dr. Subramanian discusses a recent infrastructure collapse at her university in India and situates it within broader tensions between privatized education, global branding, and material neglect. She reflects on how sudden shutdowns echo COVID-era disruptions and how faculty and students relied on the community to adapt and support one another.
Speaking to Power and Choosing the Platform
A central focus of the episode is how Dr. Subramanian navigates speaking out amid surveillance, hierarchy, and risk. She explains her strategic use of LinkedIn as a rhetorical space shaped by audience, visibility, and professional norms, and reflects on how privilege, positioning, and vulnerability shape public intellectual work.
Writing, Editing, and Gendered Hesitation
Dr. Subramanian shares insights from her work as a freelance editor, particularly patterns she has observed in dissertations written by women across racial and national contexts. She discusses how academic training often produces hedging and delayed arguments, and how editing can act as a feminist intervention by restoring clarity, confidence, and authorial presence.
Mentorship, Neurodivergence, and Collaborative Writing
The episode explores mentorship as relational rather than transactional. Dr. Subramanian describes her neurodivergent approach to teaching and editing, including rethinking participation, feedback, and access. She advocates for collaborative writing as a way to distribute fear, challenge individualistic norms in the humanities, and make intellectual labor more humane. The conversation also addresses rejection sensitivity dysphoria and practical systems for managing feedback.
What She’s Reading
Disorientation by Elaine Hsieh Chou is a satirical novel exploring race, power, and academia through the story of a PhD student.
Yellowface by R.F. Kuang, a critique of publishing, cultural appropriation, and racialized credibility.
What She’s Watching
Love Is Blind as a lens into contemporary dating culture.
Better Late Than Single, a Korean reality series offering a slower, culturally distinct approach to intimacy and transformation.
How to Connect
You can find Dr. Prerna Subramanian on LinkedIn, where she writes about academic labor, editing, feminism, and institutional power.
