AT A GLANCE
Ashwathi Sharma
Assistant Professor – Selection Grade
Area of Practice: Education
OVERVIEW
Ashwathi is an educator work lies at the intersection of design, history, and memory studies. She teaches across disciplines, encouraging students to explore personal and collective narratives through material culture and visual storytelling. Her current research focuses on the displacement of families using oral histories and everyday objects to trace intergenerational memory.
EDUCATION
PhD scholar at SMI (2023-)
M.Tech (Industrial Electronics), Gujarat Technological University, Ahmedabad (2013)
M.A. (Design Education), University of Mysore (2018)
WORK EXPERIENCE
Facilitator at Srishti Manipal Institute of art, design, and technology since 2015
Design educator from March 2014-June 2015 at an International Baccalaureate school in Pune
INTEREST AREAS
History of modern South Asia, migration and displacement in South Asia, material memories.
CURRENT PRACTICE AT SRISHTI
I am a facilitator at the foundation studies program.
TEACHING PORTFOLIO
My work reflects a deep commitment to interdisciplinary education, where creativity is central to learning. Through art and design education, I aim to foster critical thinking, cultural awareness, and social responsibility. My teaching practice integrates sociological perspectives and systems thinking, encouraging students to engage with complex, real-world contexts in thoughtful and imaginative ways.
CREATIVE PRACTICE & OUTREACH
My professional practice lies in education, pedagogy, creative and critical modes of thinking and making, with materials and media.
- The Politics of Research Legitimacy: Navigating Disciplinary Boundaries in Practice-Based Research (Online Presentation)
Platform for Art and Research Linz ’Overcoming Boundaries: A Dialogue Between Artistic and Scholarly Research‘, May 26-28, 2025, organized by Anton Bruckner Private University, Linz, Austria - Contours of Time – Tracing Borders, Politics, and Migration in the Historical Canvas of India and Burma ( Conference paper), 2024-02-22
Presented at an International conference titled – ‘Modernities Redefined – Perspectives from South Asia’
Hosted by Gitam University,Bangalore - Implications of the ‘Heritage’ Status on the Agraharams of the Kerala Tamil Brahmins in the Kalpathy Village of Palghat, Kerala ( Journal article), 2024-02-01
Published in Retrospect: Peer-Reviewed Academic Journal of Archaeology, Anthropology, History and Heritage Tourism, ISSN – 3030-7457 - Tracing intergenerational trauma and memories – The 1942 return of Indian families from Burma ( Conference paper), 2025-04-02
National Colloquium titled’ Memory, Marginality and Resistance’ hosted by Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam, Kerala
