Sudeshna Guha researches on histories of visualisation and social histories of archaeology, cultural heritage, museums and collecting practices. She has a long professional background in museums, especially in the curation of historical photographs and archaeology collections, and explores methodologies of material culture studies for also sourcing transformations, through time, of notions of evidence. She is author of A History of India Through 75 Objects (Hachette India, 2022) and Artefacts of History (SAGE, 2015), and editor and contributor of The Marshall Albums: Photography and Archaeology (Mapin/Alkazi Collection of Photography, 2010).
Dr. Guha is interested in supervising Ph.D. students who wish to research on histories of archaeologies, museums, heritagization and Bronze-Age civilizations, Nationalism and Archaeologies, and the Arts and Architectural histories of Early India.
Histories of Archaeology, The archaeology of South Asia and Early India, Art and Architecture of Pre-Colonial India, Visual Histories, Museum Studies, Cultural Heritage and Ethics, Archaeology and Nationalism
- 'Interrogating Heritage: History, Archaeology, Collection'. KARWAAN, (8 August, 2021).
- 'Heritage Histories and Recollections of Bombay' KHAKI Foundation, Mumbai (KHAKI: Keeping Heritage Alive and Kicking, 3 July 2021).
- 'Heritage Histories and Museum Archaeology: Exploring Practice and Disciplinary Domain'. Centre for Public History, Srishti Manipal, Institute of Art, Design, Technology, Bengaluru (14 May 2021).
- 'Archaeological Collections and 19th century Bombay'. Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Mumbai (30 November 2019).
- ‘Antiquities and Design Towards a Nation: Object Lessons for Archaeology’. Conference: Design, Culture and History: The Idea of Objects in Modern and Contemporary India’, The K.R. Cama Research Institute, Mumbai (5-6 January 2019)
- ‘Curating Cultures: Collections, Practices and their Histories’. Conference: The Idea of Culture: An International Conference on Teaching History, Seagull Peaceworks, Kolkata (3-5 August 2018)
- ‘Decolonising South Asia through Heritage- and Nation-Building’. Closing Keynote, Conference: Heritage, Decolonisation and the Field: A Conference, German Historical Research Institute, and UCL Institute of Archaeology, London (26 and 27 January 2018).
- ‘Archaeological and Architectural Surveys and Map-making in India’. Conference: Survey, Mapping and Cartography, Kalakriti Archives in partnership with Bonjour India, Hyderabad (6 January 2018).
- ‘Nineveh in Bombay and Histories of Indian Archaeology’. Lecture at Asiatic Society of Bangladesh, Dhaka (28 March 2017) and Ancient India Iran Trust, Cambridge (21 October 2016).
- ‘Photographs as Histories: Looking Through Collections’. Ambedkar University, Delhi (21 September 2016)
- ‘Drawing in the World? Museums as Public Spaces'. Conference: Capacity Building For Museums in India, School of Arts and Aesthetics, JNU (New Delhi) in collaboration with Nehru Trust for the Indian Collections at the V&A and Goethe Institute, Max Müller Bhavan, New Delhi (12–14 September 2016).
Tagore Scholar, National Museum
British Academy, Small Research Grant
Evans Fellowship Committe Grant, Cambridge
The Nehru Trust for the Collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Commonwealth Visiting Scholar, Dept of Archaeology, Cambridge
Junior Research Fellow, University Grants Commission, India