Dr Mallika Leuzinger
Mallika Leuzinger joined the GHIL in November 2021. She holds a BA in History and MPhil in Gender Studies from the University of Cambridge and a PhD in History of Art from University College London. She has worked in the museum and heritage sector in India and Switzerland, and as a postdoctoral researcher at Princeton University and the Institute for Asian and African Studies at HU-Berlin. At the GHIL, she is putting together a book entitled Dwelling in Photography: Intimacy, Amateurism and the Camera in South Asia, and a new project on digital archives and the politics of crowdsourcing history.
Responsibilities at the GHIL
- Research Fellow in Colonial and Global History
Research Interests
- Postcolonial Modernity
- Visual and material culture in South Asia
- History of science and technology
- Media anthropology
- Gender studies
Education and Academic Background
| 2021 | Research Fellow, Institute for Human Sciences Vienna (IWM) |
| 2020–2021 | Visiting Researcher, Department for Gender and Media Studies for the South Asian Region, IAAW, HU-Berlin |
| 2020–2021 | Fung Global Fellow, Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies, Princeton University |
| 2015–2020 | PhD in History of Art, University College London |
| 2013–2014 | MPhil in Multi-Disciplinary Gender Studies, University of Cambridge |
| 2010–2013 | BA in History, University of Cambridge |
Fellowships, Grants, and Scholarships
| 2020 | Guest of the Institute Fellowship, Institute of Human Sciences Vienna |
| 2020–2021 | Fung Global Fellows Programme Postdoctoral Fellowship, Princeton University |
| 2018 | Peter E Palmquist Memorial Fund Grant for Historical Photographic Research |
| 2017 | Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art Research Support Grant |
| 2015–2018 | History of Art Research Studentship, University College London |
| 2013–2014 | Trinity Hall Research Studentship, University of Cambridge |
Honours and Distinctions
| 2021 | Bayly Prize for distinguished dissertation on an Asian topic, Royal Asiatic Society |
| 2013 | C.W. Crawley Prize for History, Trinity Hall, University of Cambridge |
Memberships and Affiliations
- “Beyond Social Cohesion: Global Repertoires of Living Together” (RePLITO), Berlin University Alliance 2021-2024
- Consortium for History of Science, Technology and Medicine (CHSTM)
- European Association for South Asian Studies (EASAS)
- British Association for South Asian Studies (BASAS)
Publications
Monographs and Edited Volumes
with Laura Spada Scalabrella (eds), Object – Graduate Research & Reviews in the History of Art and Visual Culture, 20 (2018)
Articles and Chapters
‘Projecting Empowerment: Camera Politics in and beyond Twentieth-Century South Asia’, Dastavezi – The AudioVisual South Asia, 4/1, (2022), 8-44 (Read here)
‘The Conviviality of Haleema Hashim’s Photography’ in Malavika Karlekar (ed), Women / Photography: Alkazi Newsletter (2020)
‘Seeing Double: The Photographic Lives of Debalina Majumdar and Manobina Roy’, PIX, Personal Paradigms Issue (2020), 86-93
‘“Ummijaan’s Pictures Were Nice”: Thinking About Haleema Hashim’s Photography’, Trans Asia Photography Review, 10/1: Writing Photo Histories (2019)
‘The Intimate Contract of Photography: Haleema Hashim’s Practice and its Afterlives’, Object – Graduate Research & Reviews in the History of Art and Visual Culture, 19 (2017), 29-54
with Mushtak Khan and Krittika Narula, ‘From Dumka to New Delhi: Conversations’, in Johannes Beltz, Marie Eve Celio-Scheurer and Ruchira Ghose (eds), Cadence and Counterpoint: Documenting Santal Musical Traditions (New Delhi, 2015), 80-87
Reviews and Miscellaneous Publications
Exhibition curation
co-curated with Sabeena Gadihoke and Tapati Guha-Thakurta, Twin Sisters with Cameras: an exhibition of photographs by Debalina Mazumder and Manobina Roy, Jadunath Bhavan, Kolkata (24 February – 31 March 2022), India International Centre, New Delhi (13 – 27 August 2022), Lalit Kala Akademi, Lucknow (3 – 12 August 2023) and Bangalore International Centre, India (18 – 25 October 2023), with an accompanying catalogue, Twin Sisters with Cameras, Jadunath Bhavan Museum and Resource Centre, Kolkata, 2022
Podcast
European Photographs in the Illustrated Weekly of India, Debalina Majumdar and Manobina Roy (1959-1960), EMPIRE LINES (2021) (Listen here)