Work & Scholarship

Publications and Presentations

Papers Published and In Press

Consecration by Clearance: Heritage Governance and Its Suspension in the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor. The Historic Environment: Policy and Practice, Taylor and Francis Published
Archiving Absence: Instagram and the Diasporic Genius Loci of the Sindhi Hindu Community. RAIS Journal of Social Sciences Published
Tripartite Frameworks and Genius Loci: A Visual Method for Reading Sacred Urbanism in Flux. Proceedings of the Sixteenth International Conference on The Image, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. Common Ground Research Networks, 2025 Published
Sacred Urbanism in Flux: Mapping Varanasi between Myth, Memory, and Modernity. In Cities' Memory: Heritage, Identity, and Urban Regeneration, eds. Tatjana Pivac and Alessio Cardaci. Advances in Science, Technology & Innovation, Springer Nature Switzerland In press
Cartographies of Contestation: Kashi's Visual Translations in Ritual and Empire. Colnaghi Studies Journal, October 2026 volume Accepted
Machine Spirits and Archival Absences: AI, Genius Loci, and the Ethics of Curatorial Inference. Journal of Curatorial Studies 15.2, special issue Accepted

Institutionalising Absence in the Age of Digital Art History: Archives, Algorithms, and the Politics of Memory. In Inside Out: Art History and Its Institutions, ed. Elizabeth Mansfield. Routledge Forthcoming 2027
Flowing Through Time: The Ganga as a Ritual Medium of Temporal Multiplicity in Haridwar, Prayagraj, and Varanasi. In Asian Temporalities: Chronologies, Seasons, Tenses, eds. Federica Cidale, Petr Janda, and Monika Verma. Olomouc Asian Studies, Vol. 5, Palacký University Olomouc Forthcoming 2026
Chapter in Terms of Art, ed. Anna Luise Scherfose Due October 2026

Reading the Sacred City: A Religious-Academic-Lived Diagnostic Framework
Beyond Space and Soil: Migratory Genius Loci, Diaspora, and the Ethics of Curatorial Practice
Painting as Preservation: Hakim Alakel and a Practice-Based Model for Post-Conflict Conservation
Transgression as Consecration: Graffiti, Divine Sovereignty, and the Juridical Wall in Varanasi

Curating the Sacred: Polyvocal Translation and the Three-Sphere Framework in Museum Practice
Beyond Stone: Mijaaz, Urban Temperament, and the Fractal Constitution of Genius Loci
Genius Loci Without Monument: Al Quoz, Industrial Friction, and the Manufactured Loci of Gulf Urbanism
After Architecture: Hakim Alakel and the Post-Material Genius Loci
Avimuktakshetra and Its Discontents: Recursive Genius Loci, Sacred Exemption, and the Unfinished Project of the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor
Centripetal Force and Spatial Transposition: Towards a Planning Framework for Sacred Urbanism
Re-writing the Sacred City: Graffiti, Ritual Presence, and Urban Identity in Varanasi

Pick Your Dubai. Or Don't. Commissioned essay on Al Quoz and the two economies of Gulf urbanism. Afikra / Daftar Forthcoming 2026

A portfolio of essays and arguments in development is available to commissioning editors on request.

Sacred Absences and Algorithmic Gazes: Towards a Critical Ethics of Machine Curatorship. Association for Art History Annual Conference, University of Cambridge April 2026
Genius Loci as Métier: How Sacred Urbanism Produces its Own Métier in Varanasi. Architekturtheoretisches Kolloquium, Werner Oechslin Library Foundation, Mendrisio April 2026
Specters of the Ghats: Ritual and Imagined Architectures in Varanasi. ENSA Paris-Val de Seine & ENSA Paris-Malaquais PSL, Spectres de l'architecture May 2026
Re-writing the Sacred City: Graffiti, Ritual Presence, and Urban Identity in Varanasi. Urban Creativity Conference, Lisbon July 2026
Living Scripture: The Kashi-khanda as Indigenous Spatial Epistemology and the Epistemicide of Varanasi's Ghats. Conference on Indigenous Knowledge Systems in Arts and Architecture, Nelson Mandela University, Gqeberha September 2026
Varanasi and the Sacred City in Three Tiers: Pilgrimage, Governance, and Cosmology. Heritage(s) 2026, Istanbul September 2026
Towards a Framework for Social Sustainability in Art and Luxury. Art, Luxury, and Sustainability: Markets in Transition, Sotheby's Institute of Art November 2025
Cartographies of Contestation: Kashi's Visual Translations in Ritual and Empire. Impressions of Empire, Colnaghi Foundation & Athena Art Foundation, London September 2025

MA History of Art with Curating, Distinction, Birkbeck, University of London. High Distinction in Curation and Dissertation; recipient of three research grants, London Art History Society. Dissertation: Sacred Spaces in Flux: Negotiating Religion, History, and Urban Dynamics in Varanasi, India
BA (Hons.) Architectural Design, Heriot-Watt University, Dubai. Dissertation: Space, Symbol, Strategy in the Italian Renaissance: Architectural Patronage as a Reconstructive Tool Post-Pandemic