She served as director of the African Studies Center and Program Co-Director of UCLA's Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Humanities: Cultures in Transnational Perspective.
This, in addition to the island's multicultural society and her diverse educational experience, has informed her research interests and comparatist approach throughout her career.
Educated in Mauritius, Reunion Island, France, England, Germany, and the US, she received her PhD from the University of Michigan and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Cornell Society for the Humanities.
In 2015, she was the Mary Cornille Distinguished Visiting Professor, Newhouse Humanities Center, at Wellesley College.
In 2018, she published Evariste Parny: Selected Poetry and Prose, on the Creole abolitionist poet from Reunion Island.