Jay Arora graduated from Duke University in 2020 with a B.A. in English and Public Policy and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in English at Rice University. His work concerns the literature, culture, and history of the 20th-and 21st-century American South. Jay has particular interests in the Southern Grotesque genre, medical humanities, disability studies, and gender/sexuality. Recently, his paper "Killing Floor Blues: Factory Farming as American Grotesque in Tobe Hooper's Texas Chainsaw Massacre" was published in the Rutgers Undergraduate Journal of Comparative Literature.

In addition to academic work, Jay enjoys playing music and making short films. In 2019, his short film "Science Fiction" received the Audience Award for Best Film at the Duke Independent Film Festival.