Parul Singh, Ph.D.

Parul Singh is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the interdisciplinary programme 4A Laboratory: Art Histories, Archaeologies, Anthropologies, Aesthetics (May 2021–May 2024). She received her Ph.D. from the School of Arts and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi. Her doctoral thesis re-examines the visual culture of Awadh (Oudh) during the reign of Wajid Ali Shah (r. 1847–1856) in the light of its complex socio-political milieu, royal aspirations, tastes, influences, and underlying traditions. Her study contends that visual culture played a prominent role in maintaining and fortifying the power of the king in mid-nineteenth-century Awadh; it also shows how the cultural arena was turned into a site of socio-political negotiation and contestation between two major contenders: king Wajid Ali Shah and the British East India Company. Parul Singh was awarded the NTICVA (Nehru Trust for the Indian Collection at Victoria and Albert Museum) UK Visiting Fellowship (2015), the NTICVA- CWIT (Charles Wallace India Trust) joint study grant (2016), the Inlaks Shivdasani Foundation travel grant (2015), and a study grant by the John Bissell Foundation (2017).