Pritha Mukherjee is a 5th year PhD Candidate working with Prof Tamara Sears at the Department of Art History, Rutgers-New Brunswick, and a Rutgers Presidential Fellow (2019-2024). She has been the graduate representative for the Executive Board of the South Asian Studies Program (SASP) at Rutgers. Her dissertation explores the creation of archaeological collections in South Asia since the twentieth century and their reception in the light of recent sociopolitical developments.
Pritha has a master’s degree in Historical Studies from Nalanda University, India, and a BSc (Hons) in Chemistry from Presidency University, India. She worked as a field investigator for the Rajgir Archaeological Survey Project (RASP) and has done field surveys across north India and Nepal. Her interest in public history led to her stints with Rajgir Heritage Walk and Immersive Trails Pvt Ltd (Kolkata) as a researcher, developer and walk leader.
Emma Oslé is an advanced Ph.D. Candidate in Art History at Rutgers University—New Brunswick. As a specialist in US Latinx, diaspora, and gender studies, her dissertation research examines US Latinx visual production with interests in motherhood, migration, indigeneity, race, and decolonial feminism. Prior to beginning her doctoral program, Emma formally studied printmaking and sculpture in the studio, which appears in her work as an emphasis on process-based art making practices. She has presented her scholarship across the country and internationally. Additionally, she has curatorial experience in several museums including the Museum of Modern Art (New York, NY), Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art (Bentonville, AR), and multiple smaller institutions and private collections. Her writing has appeared in catalog publications, Rutgers Art Review, and in the NYU Latinx Project’s digital journal, Intervenxions.
Sara Varanese (she/her) is a PhD Candidate focusing on architecture, urban landscape and ecology in medieval South Asia. Sara has a background in architectural heritage and conservation from Polytechnic University in Turin (Italy), and received her Master’s in Art History and Archaeology from SOAS, London. Her current project investigates a premodern pilgrimage centre in Eastern India and reconfigures its urban structure as an extensive hydrologic landscape. Her interests also include ritual space and performativity, and the visual culture of monastic and ascetic communities and practices.