Aqsa Ashraf

Aqsa’s PhD project examines the connections between Scottish colonial photography and the construction of communalism in India. Her research aims to critically reassess late-nineteenth century photographic sources to study how Scottish colonial photography affects colonised subjects and the South Asian diaspora in Scotland today. In addition, the project aims to assess the use and meaning of Scottish photographic collections pertaining to colonial identity formation in Scottish museums, as they aim to review institutional legacies and decolonise collections. Through this multidisciplinary approach, combining Colonial Photo-History, Modern South Asian History and Museum Studies, the project aims to facilitate knowledge exchange on how to theoretically and practically address postcolonial Indian and Scottish marginality.

Aqsa’s doctoral research is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) through the Scottish Graduate School for Arts and Humanities (SGSAH). She is a Fellow of the Stuart Hall Foundation.

Aqsa is interested in South Asian colonial photography, histories of Scotland and Empire, themes of anti-colonial resistance, liminal spaces in colonial identity formation and the politics of digitising and displaying colonial photographs by Western art institutions.

Museums Collections Traineeship, Museums of the University of St Andrews (2024)

MLitt Art History, University of St Andrews (2023)

MA History, Dr B.R. Ambedkar University Delhi (2022)

BA (Hons) History, University of Delhi (2020)