Embark on a transformative educational journey at the Himalayan Institute of Cultural and Heritage Studies (HICHS), where mentorship from experts like Sonali Gupta and Siddharth Pandey plays a pivotal role in shaping your academic and professional success. Our mentors, with their specialized backgrounds and expertise in their respective fields, offer structured mentoring sessions designed to elevate your learning experience.
Understanding the significance of mentorship in life and education, Sonali Gupta and Siddharth Pandey guide students through diverse subjects, fostering growth, enlightenment, and the expansion of horizons.
Mentorship at our institute extends beyond academic and professional advisement, providing support when facing negativity, crisis, or at crossroads of life’s decisions. Engage with our mentors to explore new realms of knowledge, pedagogy, and unlock your full potential while navigating life’s challenges with confidence.
DR. SONALI GUPTA
Sonali Gupta is an archaeologist and cultural preservationist with a wealth of academic achievements and field experiences across multiple continents. In addition to her Ph.D. in Egyptian Archaeology from UCLA, she also holds a law degree, a Masters in History and Archaeology, showcasing her diverse educational background. Her expertise encompasses the transmission of cultural skills and the study of material culture in both ancient and contemporary contexts.
Throughout her career, Sonali has conducted extensive fieldwork in regions such as India, Egypt, Indonesia, and Malaysia, focusing on ethnoarchaeology, anthropology, art history, and artifact analysis. Sonali is the first Egyptian archaeologist from India but her work in South Asia and Southeast Asia has provided her with a broad range of experiences that enrich her research and preservation endeavors. Notably, she has led initiatives to preserve Himalayan culture and heritage, establishing nonprofit organizations like the Himalayan Conservation & Preservation Society (HCPS) in the US and the Himalayan Institute of Cultural & Heritage Studies (HICHS) near Simla, Himachal Pradesh, India.
Mentorship Specializations
Specializing in higher education, cultural preservation, archaeology, and heritage studies, Sonali provides tailored mentorship programs that center on interdisciplinary projects, archaeological and anthropological fieldwork, sustainable living practices, woodcraft, architecture, landscape, religion, heritage law, and the dissemination of cultural traditions and beliefs. Additionally, she offers guidance in grant writing, pedagogy, grant applications, and honing public speaking skills, further enhancing the professional and academic development of individuals under her mentorship for the subjects mentioned above.
SIDDHARTH PANDEY
Siddharth Pandey is a writer, cultural historian, and visual practitioner hailing from the Shimla Himalayas. He was educated in India and England and holds a PhD in English Literature and Materiality Studies from the University of Cambridge. Recipient of many awards and honours, he has held postdoctoral fellowships in literature, travel cultures, global history and art history at Yale Centre for British Art, LMU’s Centre for Global History, London’s Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, and the Käte Hamburger Centre for Advanced Studies ‘Global Dis:connect’ (LMU), Munich. His popular and academic writings have been published across national media and international platforms, and his photographic work has won commissions from London’s Victoria and Albert Museum and Durham’s Oriental Museum, among other places. His first book Fossil (2021) – a geo-mythological-poetic exploration of the Himalayas – was shortlisted for the 2022 Banff Mountain Fiction and Poetry Prize, widely recognized as among the most prestigious literary awards for Mountain Literatures.
Mentorship Specializations
Literary and Cultural Studies, Visual Arts and Architecture, Popular Culture, Landscape Literature and Culture, Children’s Literature, Fantasy Literature, Urban Studies, Creative Arts, Himalayan Studies, and scholarship applications, grant applications and academic writing pertaining to all of the above.