Nimra Rizvi

Areas of Interest & Expertise

  • Early Modern and Modern South Asia
  • History of Material Culture
  • Object Biographies
  • Histories of Knowledge Production
  • Histories of Museums and Archives
  • Public Histories

Biography

Nimra is a part of the Undergraduate Programme.

She is a historian of Early Modern and Modern South Asia. She is particularly interested in eighteenth and nineteenth century histories of colonialism, material culture, knowledge production and circulation of ideas and objects. Her doctoral research read power, culture and value through circulation of objects in Awadh from 1720 to 1857. As a British Academy post doctoral fellow at University College London, Nimra studied the loot in Awadh during the Uprising of 1857, as a transformative moment for object histories in South Asia. The title of the project is Multiple Lives of Indian Objects: Material Culture and Knowledge Production in Early Modern South Asia. Nimra is an Honorary Research Fellow at the Department of History, University College London. 

Nimra is interested in Public Histories and led the research unit for the Mahindra Sanatkada Lucknow Festival (MSLF) from 2012 – 2020. She also served as the Co-Director for the MSLF during the same period. Nimra is also a trustee for Sadbhavana Trust, a grassroots organisation that works with Muslim and Dalit adolescent girls and women in Lucknow. 

Publications

  • ‘The Object as Gift: Practices of Gift Exchange in Awadh in the 18th and 19th Century’, Journal of South Asian Studies, June 2024, Vol. 47, No.3
  •  ​‘Translators of Empire- Objects and Circulation in Early Modern Awadh’, The Presidency Historical Review, Vol. III, No. I 
  •  ​‘Muslim Devotional Art in India by Yousuf Saeed’, The Book Review, Vol. XLIV, Number 4, April 2020, page no. 22 – 24
  • ‘Nine Nights of the Goddess: The Navaratri Festival in South Asia edited by Caleb Simmons, Moumita Sen and Hillary Rodrigues’, The Book Review, Vol. XLIV, Number 5, May 2020, page no. 18 – 20
  • ‘Bazaars of Shahjahanabad’, Nadeem Glory, Quarterly Vol. III, Issue 2015: RNI No. MPMUL/2012/42512, page no. 36 – 40.
  • Editor and contributor, Reha’ish: At Home in Lucknow, Sanatkada Publications, 2017. ISBN 978−81−207−9493−1
  •  ​‘Cinema Houses of Lucknow’, Filmi Duniya Mein Awadh: Films, Personalities and Cinema Houses, Sanatkada Publications, 2015, pp. 119 – 126.
  • Editor and contributor, Feminists of Awadh Par Salaam: Kuch Qisse, Yaadien aur Baatien, Sanatkada Publications, 2014. ISBN 978−938−591−305−1

Conferences and Programs

  • Guest Speaker, Arthshila Santiniketan Sep 2022

Engaging with Public Histories: Some Notes from Lucknow

  • Conservation Science Research and Training Program, Mittal Institute, Harvard Art Museums and CSMVS, Mumbai Nov 2021 — June 2022

Training in scientific analysis of pigments in 17th to 19th century Mughal and Company miniatures in India

  • Speaker, Forum Transregionale Studien, Berlin; CSSS, Calcutta; CSMVS, Mumbai; Dakshina Chitra Museum, Chennai Nov 2019 

Transregional Academy, India and the World: New Arcs of Knowledge, Art Histories and Aesthetic Practices

Presentation title: ​‘Cultural Transactions through Object Circulation: Awadh and the World 1740−1857’

  • Curator, Mahindra Sanatkada Lucknow Festival (MSLF) Feb 2019

Husn e Karigari e Awadh, an exhibition showcasing 40 crafts native to Lucknow. The story of each craft was told through its craftspeople; technique and innovation and tools and raw material

  • Invited Speaker, Society for Experiential Education and Development (SEED) Sep 2018 

Presentation title: ​‘Patterns of Change and Continuity in 18th century Awadh’

  • Curator, Francisi Awadhi Tallu’qaat, MSLF Feb 2018     

The exhibition Francisi Awadhi Tallu’qaat explored the contribution of the French to the art, architecture, literature and cuisine of Awadh in the 18th and 19th century

  • Young Scholars Conference, CHS, JNU Mar 2017

‘Articulating Identities- Indo European Interaction in the Zenanas in Awadh 18th and 19th Century Awadh’