Research Interests: History of Photography; South Asian Art and Visual Culture; Art and Activism; Global Modernism; Contemporary Art; Intellectual History of Art; Art Historiography; Postcolonial Studies; Print History; History of Inter-Asian Connections
Professor Ranu Roychoduhuri is a scholar of modern and contemporary art in South Asia, focusing on photography, print history, intellectual histories of art, art historiography, and postcolonial studies. She has published in peer-reviewed journals, edited volumes, and art magazines and her research has been supported by national and international institutions. She curated shows for private and public institutions and taught in the US and Indian higher education institutions. Her scholarship, teaching, and curatorial practices focus on entangled histories of visual aesthetics, photographic techno-materiality, intellectual commitments, and political processes in modern South Asia and foreground the historical interconnectedness of visual cultures that exemplify cosmopolitan artistic practices.
Professor Roychoduhuri received her PhD in South Asian Languages and Civilizations from the University of Chicago and began her professional career at Nalanda University. Subsequently, she joined the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati before joining Ahmedabad University. During her tenure at the IITG, she spent an academic year as Associate Research Scholar and Lecturer at Yale University.
Peer-reviewed journal articles
Chapters in Edited Volumes
Scholarly Articles in Magazines
Book/Exhibition reviews
Reflections
At Ahmedabad University, Professor Roychoudhuri is part of the faculty team developing the Dual-Degree Programme in Integrated Arts and teaches courses across her areas of research interest.
Courses:
PVA101 Exploring Studio Art (Co-taught)
2021 Bethune College, University of Calcutta — Uttara Chakrabarty Memorial Lecture
Lecture title: Of People and Smoke: Industrialscape in Post-Independence India
2020 Yale ISM Fellows Luncheon Series
Lecture title: “Development Communication”: Catholic Theology and Documentary Photography in Post-Emergency Calcutta
2018 Ashoka University, Department of Visual Arts
Lecture title: Camera and Cosmopolitanism: Notes from South Asia
2017 University of Dayton, Department of History and Department of Art and Design
Lecture title: Documentary Photography in Twentieth Century South Asia
2016 Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta
Lecture title: An Art for Society’s Sake: Documentary Photography, Iconoclasm, and the Making of “People of Calcutta”
2016 The Asiatic Society, Kolkata
Lecture title: Photography and the Vernacular Press in Early-Twentieth Century Bengal
2016 Wright State University, Department of History
Lecture title: Documentary Photography, Decolonization, and the Making of “Secular Icons”
2021 Shergil-Sundaram Arts Foundation
Panelist for book discussion on Portal: The Curious Account of Achintya Bose by Shan Bhattacharya
https://ssaf.in/ssaf_programmes/2021-book-discussion-portal-the-curious-account-of-achintya-bose/
2021 The Foundation for Indian Contemporary Art
Reading workshop on Image/Object/Affect: Circuits of Seeing
https://ficart.org/imageobjectaffect
2021 Alkazi Foundation for the Arts
Interviewed for their ongoing project on Photography and Magazine in India
https://alkazifoundation.org/photography-and-the-magazine-in-india-11/
2020 Yale Institute of Sacred Music
Speaker for the virtual series “Voices from the Quarantine”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOWvIkG1aXI&t=150s
2020 The Macmillan Center, Yale University
Speaker for their online series “Macmillan Report”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECcb8wzXl6A
2019 Lead speaker on a panel discussion on “Lives of Labour in the City” as part of The City in the Archives - Part II at the Center for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta (CSSSC)
2018 Fourth Pillar: India Journalism Week organized by The University of Chicago Center in Delhi
Panelist in a Roundtable Discussion on Art and Politics & commentator during film screening and discussion
2017 Victoria Memorial Hall in Association with Goethe Institute / Max Mueller Bhavan and Jadavpur University – 1st Jadavpur University Photo Fest 2017
Panelist in a Roundtable Discussion on Art as Archive
2016 Smart Museum of Art, The University of Chicago
Gallery Talk on Documentary Photography: Telling Real Stories