This course, jointly taught by Dr. Sonali Gupta and Dr. Siddharth Pandey, studies a major Himalayan terrain from the subcontinent through a decidedly interdisciplinary lens. Bringing philosophical, historical, cognitive, sociological, artistic and performative perspectives to bear upon the state of Himachal Pradesh, it weaves together a variety of critical and creative perspectives to explore the Western Himalayas as a land of immense natural and cultural diversity. While the study of mountains has been an ongoing academic pursuit for the past several decades, the lenses used till now have majorly been scientific and policy oriented. Even as our course acknowledges and integrates these prisms, it posits itself as a fresh pedagogical endeavour by drawing upon sources from the lived, emotional and everyday cultures of the mountains. Such sources are fundamental for a deeper and ethical understanding of ideas such as identity and belonging, that lie at the very heart of the Himalayan way of life. And even as the course largely concentrates on the Western Himalayan topography, its objectives and insights shall be of value for the study of other Himalayan terrains and, indeed, other mountain societies as well.

Course Highlights
• Spread across four successive weekends (Friday and Saturday), with two-hour sessions for each of the eight days (16 hours in total). The exact dates are October 30, 31,November 6, 13, 14, 19, 20 & 21.
• For maximum participation, the sessions will be held during late evenings (Indian Standard Time, 7 PM to 9 PM).
• We approach highland cultures from philosophical, historical and cognitive perspectives, weaving in ideas pertaining to aesthetics, belonging and collective identity formation.
• We move on to a detailed consideration of two kinds of landscapes found in Himachal Pradesh: precolonial and colonial, even as the postcolonial continues to inform our outlook and vantage point.
• As our major examples, we cover four major regions of Himachal (Kullu, Lahaul-Spiti, Kangra and Shimla) through the prisms of natural design, indigenous architecture, and visual-material history.
• In the final three sessions, we shift attention to artistic practices such as dancing and singing, and also concentrate on modes of community formation. We additionally attend to contemporary concerns of mountain development, by exposing the gaps between policy and practice on the ground level, as well as by invoking the tribulations of climate crisis and the trajectories taken by media’s understanding of mountains.
• No prior understanding or relationship to mountain cultures is required. There is no formal assessment either. An interest in any kind of geographical culture(s) will however come in useful.
• Participants are expected to attend all the sessions, given the strategic conceptual layout of the course. Should the participant be unable to attend any classes, please inform the instructors beforehand. Please also understand that no recordings of the unattended or attended session shall be made available.
• Short readings and references shall be provided nearer to the beginning of the course itself, and ample space will be provided for individual responses and group discussions during the sessions.

Day 1: Meeting Mountains: Philosophy, History and Interdisciplinarity [SP and SG]
Day 2: Diverse Dwellings: Introducing Precolonial and Colonial Era Landscapes [SG and SP]
Day 3: Natural Knowledge, Highland Homes [Part 1]: Kullu and Lahaul-Spiti [SG]
Day 4: Natural Knowledge, Highland Homes [Part 2]: Kangra and Shimla [SP]
Day 5: Making a Song and Dance: Performing the Himalayan Everyday [SG and SP]
Day 6: Embodying the Mountains: Personal Interventions and Multimodal Approaches [SG and SP].
Day 7: Contemporary Contemplations: Policy, Contradictions and Crisis [SP and SG]
Day 8: Wrapping-up and Round Table Discussion [All]

Dr. Sonali Gupta:
Dr. Sonali Gupta is an anthropological archaeologist, lawyer, and expert consultant for a US-based social justice consulting firm. Her work includes expert evidence and consulting on caste and gender discrimination, human trafficking, asylum, and climate-induced migration cases before tribunals and legal bodies in the United Kingdom, United States, and Canada. With a profoundly multidisciplinary background, she practised criminal law for six years before transitioning into archaeology. Her pursuit of Egyptian Archaeology at the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, UCLA, made her the first Indian Egyptologist and shaped her distinctive approach to research, advocacy, and education.

Her expertise encompasses South Asian and Southeast Asian anthropological archaeology, social justice consulting, climate-induced displacement, and cultural heritage studies, with a focus on both the tangible and intangible processes of cultural transmission, equity, and environmental change. Dr. Gupta has received significant research grants from the British Museum, the British Academy, Lewis and Clarke Fellowship from the American Philosophical Society, the Mellon Fellowship and others. She has also held a pedagogical fellowship in UCLA’s Anthropology Department and served as Director of Programs at the Cotsen Institute.

Her postdoctoral work enabled an in-depth study of Iban textiles in Borneo. She founded India’s first non-invasive archaeological field school and the Himalayan Institute of Cultural and Heritage Studies (HICHS), which has hosted over 250 online seminars, cultivating a vital repository of Himalayan knowledge.

Dr. Gupta has also created community hubs, including Kettli Café in Dhami and Mirpur Haveli in Delhi, fostering engagement and cultural dialogue. Her conservation efforts led to the establishment of the Himalayan Conservation and Preservation Society (HCPS) in the United States, expanding opportunities for research and funding. She is a TEDx speaker whose work and public talks foreground Himalayan climate change, environmental sustainability, waste management, and the relationship between ecological change, culture, and community life.

Her research and teaching now centre on the Himalayas, with particular attention to ancient knowledge traditions, climate resilience, and projects such as *Himalayan Myth and Reality*, *Materiality and Memory*, and the Gram Dharohar Project. She is also documenting the wooden temples of the Western Himalayas, drawing inspiration from Chetwode and Nankivell.

Her teaching portfolio includes UCLA, the National Museum, New Delhi, and a range of online programs at her non profit Institutes, HICHS and HCPS, integrating social-justice principles into heritage practice and policy. As a cancer survivor, she is actively leading a breast-cancer awareness initiative focused on early detection, patient advocacy, and community outreach.

Dr. Gupta’s multifaceted experience in archaeology, law, social-justice consulting, climate advocacy, and cultural heritage makes her a driving force in innovative research, interdisciplinary education, and community-centred advocacy.

Dr. Siddharth Pandey:
Siddharth Pandey is the 2026 Fellow at the Max Weber Centre for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies, University of Erfurt, Germany. Until recently, he was the inaugural Joint Fellow at the Käte Hamburger Centre for Advanced Study in the Humanities “Global Dis:connect” (GD:C), Munich (Germany) and The M.S. Merian – R. Tagore International Centre of Advanced Study “Metamorphoses of the Political” (ICAS:MP), New Delhi (India). He is an interdisciplinary writer, scholar, musician and visual practitioner working at the interface of visual, material, literary and historical studies. Belonging to the Himachal Himalayas, he has a PhD in Literary Aesthetics and Craft Studies from the University of Cambridge, UK (2019), two MPhils in English and Education Studies (Cambridge, 2013; University of Delhi; 2012), and an MA and BA(H) from the University of Delhi (2010, 2008). Post PhD, Pandey has held numerous research fellowships in Art History, Visual, Literary and Material Cultures at the Ludwig Maximilian University’s Centre for Global History, Munich (2019), the Yale Centre for British Art, Yale University (2019), the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, London (2022), the Käte Hamburger Centre for Advanced Study in the Humanities “Global Dis:connect” (GD:C), Munich (twice, 2022-23 and 2025), and The M.S. Merian – R. Tagore International Centre of Advanced Study “Metamorphoses of the Political” (ICAS:MP), New Delhi (2026). He is also twice the recipient of the Charles Wallace India Trust (CWIT) grant (2012 and 2017), and was the 2025 Writer-in-Residence at the International Centre Goa (ICG). Pandey has worked closely with some of the world’s leading museums and galleries as a commissioned photographer-curator, including the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (2016), The Oriental Museum, Durham (2016-17), and the Gaiety Theatre, Shimla (2013, 2014). He serves as a lecturer and academic advisor for the Shimla Hills based non-profit organisation The Himalayan Institute of Cultural and Heritage Studies (HICHS), and has taught and tutored numerous courses at the Universities of Delhi, Cambridge and Durham. His essays and book chapters on art, culture, society and the environment have regularly appeared in a variety of academic anthologies and South Asian media for more than a decade, including The Tribune, The Hindu, The Pioneer, Live Wire, Outlook, Scroll, Frontline and others. His first book Fossil (2021), a geo-mythological and literary-visual interpretation of the Himalayas, was published as part of the Tasmania-run global arts project ‘Lost Rocks’, where he was the only Asian contributor amidst a total of forty international contributors. The book was a finalist for the 2022 Banff Mountain Literature Awards (Canada), widely regarded as the pre-eminent global award for highland writing. He is currently working on the first narrative history of the north-Indian town of Shimla (under contract with Hachette India), and is also serving as an editor for two academic books: the first, a volume on ‘Himachal Pradesh’ for the 36-part ‘Indian Expression Series: Art and Culture in Post-Independent India’, mentored by Professor G.N. Devy (Routledge), and second, as the co-editor for a volume on ‘Empire, Mobility and Immobility’ along with Harald Fischer-Tiné and Teuku Reza Fadeli.