Faculty at School of Humanities and Social Sciences

Sudeshna Guha

Sudeshna Guha

Professor

School of Humanities and Social Sciences


Contact Information

Histories of Archaeology, The archaeology of South Asia and Early India, Art and Architecture of Pre-colonial India, Historiography, Visual Histories, Histories of Photography in South Asia, Materiality, Museum Studies, Cultural Heritage and Ethics, Archaeology and Nationalism

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  • 1990–1991: Post-doctoral Fellow, Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge
  • 1990. Ph.D. Archaeology. Deccan College, University of Poona (undertaken between 1985-1989)
  • 1985. M.A. Ancient Indian History Culture and Archaeology. Deccan College, University of Poona
  • 1983. B.A. (Hons.) History. Lady Sri Ram College, University of Delhi

  • 07/2021–Present, Professor, Department of History and Archaeology, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Shiv Nadar University, Delhi-NCR
  • 01/2016–06/2021, Associate Professor, Department of History and Archaeology, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Shiv Nadar University, Delhi-NCR
  • 04/2015–05/2016, Tagore Research Scholar, National Museum, New Delhi
  • 07/2010–30/2013, Research Associate, Digital Archives (ECLAP) and Redevelopment Project, Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge
  • 10/2005–09/2009, University Lecturer in South Asian History (Unestablished post), Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Cambridge
  • 10/1997–09/2005, Research Associate, Photograph Collections, Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge
  • 08/1995–04/1996, Curatorial and Exhibition Assistant, Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge
  • 09/1994–07/1995, Curatorial Assistant, Indian and Southeast Asian Collections, Victoria and Albert Museum, London
  • 02/1993–06/1994, Assistant Staff, Conservation of Roman Bronzes, Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge
  • 01/1992–07/1992, Guest Lecturer, Department of History, Lady Sri Ram College, University of Delhi
  • 01/1990–04/1990, Assistant Arts Officer, British Council Division, New Delhi  

  • 2015–2017, Tagore Scholar, National Museum
  • 2005, British Academy, Small Research Grant
  • 1999, Evans Fellowship Committee Grant, Cambridge
  • 1994, India Travel Award, Nehru Trust for the Indian Collections at the V&A Museum, London
  • 1990–1991, Commonwealth Visiting Scholar, Dept of Archaeology, Cambridge
  • 1985–1989, Junior Research Fellow, University Grants Commission, India

Books

  • Guha, S. 2025. Artefacts of History: Archaeology, Historiography and Indian Pasts. Second Edition with a new Preface. Primus Books, New Delhi.
  • Guha, S. (Ed.) 2024. Histories in the Making: Photographing Indian Monuments, 1855–1920. DAG Publications, New Delhi.
  • Guha, S. 2022. A History of India Through 75 Objects. Hachette India, New Delhi.
  • Guha, S. 2015. Artefacts of History: Archaeology, Historiography and Indian Pasts. Sage Publications, London/Thousand Oaks CA/New Delhi.
  • Guha, S. 2010 (Ed.). The Marshall Albums: Photography and Archaeology. Mapin Publications and Alkazi Collection of Photography, Ahmedabad/New Delhi.

 

Forthcoming

Guha, S (Ed.) 2026. Typecasting: Photographing People of India, 1855-1920. DAG Publications, New Delhi.

  • Guha, S. (2024). Craft and Its Representation Thinking Through the Pre-Colonial Histories of Craft Practices in India. In T. Kachru and R. Reubens (Eds.) The RoutledgeHandbook of Craft and Sustainability in India. Routledge, pp. 75-88.
  • Guha, S. (2024). Technologies and Epistemologies in the Early Photography of India's Monuments. In S. Guha (Ed.) Histories in the Making: Photographing Indian Monuments, 1855–1920. DAG Publications, pp. 9-71.
  • Guha, S. (2023). Imagination and Presence: Human Animal Relations and the Arts of Precolonial Deccan. In A. Parasher-Sen (Ed.) Conversations with the Animate ‘Other’: Historical Representations of Human and non-Human interactions in India. Bloomsbury Academic, 35–53.
  • Guha, S. (2023). Social Formation: Archaeological Scholarship of the Indus Civilization. In G.N. Devy, T. Joseph and R. Korisettar (Eds.) The Indians: Histories of a Civilization, Aleph Book Company, New Delhi, pp. 94–8.
  • Guha, S. (2022). A Status Report of the Tribal Arts within the Central Tribal Belt. In M. Shah and P.S. Vijay Shankar (Eds.) Tribal Development Report: Human Development and Governance, Routledge, London/New Delhi, pp. 275–338.
  • Guha, S. (2021). Decolonizing South Asia through Heritage and Nation Building FutureAnterior: Journal of Historic Preservation, History, Theory and Criticism Vol. 16 (2), pp. 31-46.
  • Guha, S. (2019). Curating ‘Cultures’: Collections, Practices and their Histories. The Idea of Culture, The Seagull Foundation for the Arts [Conference Proceedings].
  • Guha, S. (2017). ‘Nineveh’ in Bombay and Histories of Indian Archaeology. Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bangladesh (Humanities), Vol. 62 (1), pp. 65–85.

 

Forthcoming:

  •  Guha, S. Harappa@100: A Catalogue of Photographs of Excavations at Harappa in 1924–25. Proceedings of International Conference Commemorating the Centenary year of the Announcement of Discovery of Indus Valley Civilization. Tamil Nadu State Department of Archaeology and Roja Muthiah Research Library (Chennai, 5-7 January 2025)
  • Guha, S. ‘Heritage and the Curation of the Archaeological Scholarship of India’, in V. Selvakumar, S.K. Aruni and S. Hemanth (Eds.) South Asian archaeology: From the Palaeolithic to the Present: Essays in Honor of Professor K. Paddayya. Aryan, New-Delhi.

  • 2024. Review of Our Deep Past: Personalities and Themes in Indian Heritage Studies, K. Paddayya (2022), Anthropos 119 (1), pp. 288–9. 10.5771/0257-9774-2024-1-288
  • 2024 [July]. ‘Objects and the Museum’, Conversation with Ankan Kazi, for DAG Museums. https://dagworld.com/objects-and-the-museum-a-conversation-with-sudeshna-guha.html
  • 2021 [November]. Appeared in the Talking Loop for the exhibition Excavating an Imagination (curated by Sarabhi Ravichandran, Andreas Langfeld, Kerstin Meincke), International Photo Biennale, Chennai, December 2021–February 2022.
  • Guha, S. (2019). Indian Economic and Social History Review, No. 56 (1), pp. 107—9. Review of Priya Maholay-Jaradi, Fashioning a National Art: Baroda’s Royal Collection and Art Institutions: 1875-1924 (2016)
  • Guha, S. (2017). Studies in History, Vol. 33 (2), pp. 275–9. Review of S. Ratnagar, Harappan Archaeology: Early State Perspectives (2016).
  • Guha, S. (2017). The Necklace that Divided Two Nations. BBC Documentary, The Museum of Lost Objects, episode 5, July 15.
  • Guha, S. (2015). Light of the Solar Race: Rajendra Chola. The Week, December 27.
  • Guha, S. (2015). Nineveh in Bombay: When the Splendours of Ancient Assyria Enraptured the City. Scroll.in. December 13.