Who we are
 Principal Investigator: Dr Rishika Mukhopadhyay, University of Southampton | Dr Rishika Mukhopadhyay is a human geographer whose interdisciplinary research spans Critical Heritage Studies, Southern Urbanism, and the Craft Economy, grounded in postcolonial and decolonial perspectives. Her work is organized around two key strands: the meaning, production, and politics of living heritage, including craft practices, sacred sites, and sensory heritage ; community-based creative craft economies in postindustrial and postcolonial contexts. Rishika employs art exhibitions as a mode of public engagement, translating academic research into accessible, experiential formats. She is currently working on two projects on nationalist urbanism and transnational diasporic heritage, supported by the British Academy and the Korean National Commission for UNESCO. |
 CO-Investigator: Dr Jen Dickinson, University of Southampton | Dr Jen Dickinson is Associate Professor in the School of Geography and Environmental Sciences at the University of Southampton, UK. She is a political geographer whose research and writing focuses on diasporic politics and mobilisation, the contributions of diasporas to development, and diasporic civic society. Her current work examines these dynamics in the context of the global Rwandese and Indian diasporas. Her work has received research funding from the Economic and Social Research Council, the British Academy and the European Union. Policy engagement is central to much of her work, and she has consulted for government, third-sector, international organisations and diaspora organisations on diaspora outreach and engagement. |
 Co-investigator: Dr Saeed Ahmad, O. P. Jindal Global University | Dr Saeed Ahmad is a historian and Assistant Professor at the Jindal School of Art and Architecture, O.P. Jindal Global University, Haryana, India. His work examines the material and social production of Delhi through questions of migration, infrastructure, conflict, and memory. Saeed received his PhD from the Centre for Modern Indian Studies (CeMIS), University of Goettingen, prior to which he was based at the Department of History, University of Delhi. Saeed is currently preparing a book manuscript based on Delhi's long twentieth century through a historical sociology of a Delhi neighbourhood from c. 1922-2022. It focuses on the shifting caste, class, spatial, and religious conjunctions that affect state legibility, civic, and political access to craft space, community, and belonging in the neighbourhood and the city. Some of this research has appeared in Modern Asian Studies and South Asia. He is also part of a new collaborative transdisciplinary British Academy funded project with Rishika Mukhopadhyay and Jen Dickinson (University of Southampton), that addresses questions of sacred urbanism, heritage and diaspora worlding. |
 Postdoctoral research fellow: Dr Jaskiran Singh Bhogal | TBC |
 Research Assistance: Dr Arunima Ghoshal | I am urbanist with my research focus on urban transformations at the intersection of spatial justice, urban policy and knowledge production in the postcolonial context. My doctoral work titled “Heritage movements in the postcolonial city: Contestations between middle-class activisms and urbanisation processes in Kolkata” has explored and analysed middle-class heritage activism in Kolkata, India, through the lens of cultural participation and urban governance whereby heritage sites have emerged a space of violent confrontation, speculation and spatial reorganisation. Methodologically, my work relies on qualitative techniques, including ethnography, photovoice, walking, and oral narratives. My future research is focused on politics of knowledge co-production and forms of urban governance through the lens of transnational urban corridors, exploring heritage regimes, practices, and postcolonial diplomacy. |
 Fieldwork Assistant: Anmol Tiwari | Anmol Tiwari is a senior research scholar in the department of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India. His doctoral work focuses on the intersection of religion and emotion at the time of crisis during COVID-19 pandemic. He is also interested in understanding the emotional aspect of the sacred space of Varanasi. He has conducted field work related to this thesis and also at various locations in the city of Varanasi. He has presented his paper in international and national conferences on themes related to doctoral work. He seeks to advance nuanced understandings of emotionality and religion in contemporary Indian society. |
