Shatavisha Mustafi

Shatavisha Mustafi, Assistant Professor, School of Liberal Studies and Media, UPES. Mustafi was a Fulbright-Nehru Doctoral 2019-2020 fellow at the Department of Art, Theory and Criticism, MIT where her research focused on the art collection of Chester and Davida Herwitz and the role of foreign patronage in promoting Indian art overseas. Her study tracked how value-making in the ‘artworld’ is based on the economic structures that underlie the practice and circulation of art.  

Shatavisha holds an undergraduate degree in Comparative Literature and has a Masters as well as an M.Phil degree in Art History. Shatavisha’s publications have appeared in the Bengal Art Journal, Sahapedia, and Eyeline. The Indian Council of Social Sciences and Research, Ministry of Education, India has recognized her work by supporting her doctoral research.

As a curator and a visual culture researcher, she co-curated the Students’ Biennale, Kochi Biennale Foundation. Her curatorial proposition explored the modern praxis of art making within the structures of the colonial art school education. Her projects leaned towards understanding the various strands of art making within the student community. Alongside her professional commitments, Shatavisha is a trained Bharatnatyam dancer and a painter. Her interests lie in the multiple intersections of literary studies, and culture industry, as a non-coercive means to understand diplomacy and soft-power.

• International Museum Expo | Ministry of Culture | Workshops on the curation and the future of museums I 2023
• Election Commission of India | Election and Democracy Museum, 2018.
• Shiv Nadar University | Introduction to Modern and Contemporary Indian Art, 2018.
• Kochi Muziris Biennale | Students' Biennale | 2016
• Sahapedia | Research Associate | 2015.
• Flow India | Museum and Heritage facilitator | 2013

Modern and Contemporary Art, Social lives of artworks, Curatorial Studies, Cultural economy, Museums, Exhibition making

Shatavisha believes in the Aristotelian philosophy of open questioning and analytics post observation. She brings to class examples from everyday life to have a better understanding of society at large. Additionally, Shatavisha’s classes are *no phone class unless King Kong attacks.

• Critical Thinking and Writing
• A 100 objects: A Survey Course on the Iconography and Material Culture of India
• Media, Medium, & Materiality: The Consequences of New Media
• Construction and Deconstruction: A seminar course on Transmedia Adaptation

• Fulbright-Nehru doctoral fellow 2019-2020 at Massachusetts Institution of Technology.
• Sahapedia-UNESCO Fellowship 2020.
• Godrej Cultural Lab National Fellow 2020.
• Indian Council of Social Science Research | Ministry of Human Resource Development | Doctoral Fellowship 2018/2019.
• Nehru Trust for the Indian Collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum Travel grant 2018-2019.
• Young Curators Curatorial Award 2016-2017 | Kochi Biennale Foundation

Shatavisha regularly presents her research at conferences and seminars at universities and organisations of global repute. Every year Shatavisha trains students to apply for Fulbright and other grants pro bono. This training involves long sessions of selecting universities and identifying research areas. As a pedagogue, she is interested in writing pedagogies and often assists students with their college application essays. She also works closely with the artist communities offering them feedback and helping them write artist statements or design online platforms for outreach.

shatavisha.mustafi@ddn.upes.ac.in