Centre for Design History Podcasts

South Asia and Design History Research

LISTEN: 1 | Thresholds — Professor Rupali Gupte and Dr Megha Rajguru in conversation (25mins)

Prof Rupali Gupte is an architect and urbanist, practicing and teaching in Mumbai. She is a co-founder of School of Environment and Architecture (SEA). She is also the director of SEA Studio, a research and design laboratory at SEA, a partner at BARD Studio a multidisciplinary practice  through which she has undertaken multiple research and design projects, developing critical understandings of, and responses to, the urban realm.

Dr Megha Rajguru is a member of the Centre for Design History and Senior Lecturer in History of Art and Design at the University of Brighton. Her  research focusses on South Asian design and she currently writing on the history of modern housing and the production of interiors in Mumbai, with particular attention to government policy and design in colonial and postcolonial contexts.

Music Credit: With thanks to Doctor Turtle for soundtrack “Dorcas Breaks The Surface” from Free Turtle Archive: Everything CC:BY By Turtle

LISTEN: 2 | South Asia and Design History Research (30mins)

Dr Megha Rajguru, Hajra Williams and Monna Matharu in conversation, discussing their individual research and positionalities as South Asian researchers. This podcast is for the first South Asian Heritage Month taking place between 18 July 2020 – 17 August 2020 with the British Council and Manchester Museum.

Dr Megha Rajguru is a member of the Centre for Design History and Senior Lecturer in History of Art and Design at the University of Brighton. Her research focusses on South Asian design and she currently writing on the history of modern housing and the production of interiors in Mumbai, with particular attention to government policy and design in colonial and postcolonial contexts.

Hajra Williams is a PhD student at the University of Brighton. Her research focusses on the barriers to museum participation faced by the South Asian community in the UK, analysing the processes museums employed in exhibition design and development in order to reduce these barriers. Prior to her PhD Hajra was the second South Asian Education Officer at the Victoria and Albert Museum focusing on developing initiatives to engage the South Asian community locally and nationally.

Monna Matharu is an MA student on MA Curating Collections and Heritage. Monna is currently writing her dissertation which focuses on the Partition Museum in Amritsar, examining the aims and experience of this people’s museum and memorial to the Partition, a calamitous event in South Asian History. Prior to her MA, Monna studied Religion at SOAS. Her research is primarily focused on the performance and meaning of heritage, trauma and the imperial nature of collections.