Harleen Kaur

I am a Joint PhD Candidate at South Asian Studies Programme, National University of Singapore and India Institute, King’s College London. My research focuses of the contemporary history of New Delhi, and I take wider interest in urban history focusing on issues of built-environment, socio-political and cultural aspects of the city life. I am a recipient of NUS Research Scholarship for my project. Prior to joining PhD, I have been trained as a historian at Indraprastha College For Women, University of Delhi and Dr B. R. Ambedkar University Delhi. Alongside studies, I pursued my interest in public history and heritage awareness by volunteering as a heritage walk leader and curating walking routes for Delhi Heritage Walks. I honed my understanding of archival work as a research assistant at the Sufi Kathak Foundation for The Courtesan Project (2019) and as a Junior Project Fellow at the National Council for Education Research and Training (2019-2020).

Current Research:

My current research project aims to reconstruct the history of New Delhi as India’s national capital in the decades after Independence and bring the narrative up-to-date to cover recent developments such as the Central Vista. It intends to look at the continuity and change of New Delhi’s built environment that is shaped and influenced by changing political, social, cultural and global ethos.You can read a part of my research in my article titled Spatial Language of Dissent in New Delhi: Public Space, Protests, and the National Capital (c. 1947–2022) in The Journal of Indian and Asian Studies, Vol. 04, No. 01, 2350003 (2023).

Areas of Study:

New Delhi; Built-environment; South Asia; Capital City; Urban History

@harleen1225

https://www.worldscientific.com/doi/10.1142/S2717541323500031