Kaamya Sharma
I am a researcher, teacher and writer with interests in craft, technology and culture.
It all started with my doctoral research, which examined online identity projects centered on the sari and what they reveal about consumers, cultures and markets. The research was multidisciplinary and led me into the domains of ethnography, history as well as cultural, media and social media analysis.
I have published peer-reviewed articles in leading research journals and articles in national dailies and international magazines. Currently, I am working on a book about the cultural history of the sari based on this research.
I love writing. Even more, I love teaching the craft of writing (nonfiction, academic writing, technical writing) to different audiences. In 2019, I was awarded the Peter Taylor Fellowship given to outstanding writers by the Kenyon Review.
While working as a tenured faculty member in a premier engineering institution, I realized that there’s a staggering gap in understanding between tech creators and their clients/end-users. This led to my second calling: I bring my expertise in research and communication to consult for companies in the tech, luxury retail, craft and wellness spaces, helping them engage effectively with their audiences.
I continue to work on a number of fairly eclectic research topics, some of which include i) how digital tools can help in archiving cultural heritage; ii) decolonizing craft narratives; iii) how users perceive sartorial comfort. You can find a more comprehensive description of the research projects here.
Do any of these topics interest you as well? Let’s talk!
Experience
Editor
Curating for The Browser, the daily newsletter recommending the best writing on the Internet
Writer, Teacher & Editor
Content Strategy Consulting; Teaching Workshops & Courses on Writing & Communication; Editorial Support; Public Engagement
VP, Client Relations & Chief Editor
Client Relations; Workforce Management; Content & Campaign Ideation, Strategy & Design
Chief Editor & Key Account Manager (Bosch)
Key Account Management; Project Management; Content Ideation & Development
Assistant Professor
Qualitative Research; Research Leadership; Teaching; Mentorship; Outreach; Consultancy; Public Sector Engagement.
Postdoctoral Fellow
Qualitative Research; Writing; Research Outreach; Teaching
Education
Aarhus University, Denmark
Funded by the Erasmus IBIES Fellowship
Indian Institute of Technology, Madras
Minor: Economics
Publications
Hand-crafted identities: Sartorial taste and belonging amongst elite women in urban India
Peer-reviewed Journal Article
LinkThe Orientalisation of the Sari: Sartorial Praxis and Womanhood in Colonial and Post-Colonial India
Peer-reviewed Journal Article
LinkHow to Dress a National Elite: The Case of the Kalakshetra Sari
Peer-reviewed Journal Article
LinkJohn Forbes Watson’s Devastating Catalogue of Indian Textiles
Newspaper Article
LinkThoothukudi Custodial Deaths: A Dangerous Blind Spot
Newspaper Article co-authored with Arvind Srinivasan
LinkBook Review: Tirthankar Roy, The Crafts and Capitalism: Handloom Weaving Industry in Colonial India
Review Article
LinkOn Weaving an Interschool Inclusive Event
Article in Edited Anthology co-authored with Smruthi Bala Kannan
LinkThe Scent of Happiness: A Novel
Book Translation from Tamil-English by K. Srilata & Kaamya Sharma
LinkTalks
Craft & Design: Bridging the Divide
Invited Talk: Public Engagement
LinkFrom Eco-friendly to Eco-habitus: Sustainable Consumption and Class in Urban India
Invited Presentation: Academic Workshop
Fold Craft: Uncovering the Nivi Sari
Invited Talk: Public Engagement
LinkKaamya Sharma Poses a Challenging Question
Podcast Interview
LinkDecolonizing Craft Discourse
Invited Talk: Public Engagement
Link#Strongnotskinny: Gender, Body and Community on Instagram
Keynote Lecture: Annual Academic Conference
LinkProject CRAFT
Invited Presentation: Academic Conference
Clothing and the Politics of Identity: Saris, Nationhood, and Consumption in Urban India
Invited Talk: Public Engagement
Of Bicycles, Gramophones and ‘Brash’ Colours: 19th-Century Anxieties Surrounding Indian Textiles
Invited Talk: Public Engagement
Whose Sari is it Anyway?
Invited Talk: Public Engagement
The Dancing Sari: The Aesthetics of Nationalism in the Case of the Kalakshetra Sari
Invited Presentation: Academic Conference
Telling Sari Stories: (re)-Appropriations of Dress and the Politics of Identity in Urban South India
Invited Presentation: Academic Conference
Workshops
Writing Strategies: Storytelling, Communication & Leadership
Instructor & Speaker: Workshop Session
Technical Report Writing
Instructor & Speaker: Workshop Session
Effective Communication Strategies in the Job Search
Instructor & Speaker for Workshop Session in Course: Effective Communication & Soft Skills
Kenyon-IITM Writing Workshop
Coordinator & Fellow-at-Large
Kenyon Review Writers Workshop (Literary Nonfiction)
Peter Taylor Fellow
Projects
Archiving Knowledge
When conserving objects or materials which are subject to decay, our conservation efforts may at most preserve them for a few centuries. The only way to truly preserve them is to preserve knowledge of their making. This collaborative project entails a reimagining of AI and computing methods to archive endangered aspects of craft, culture and heritage.
Beyond Big Data
Current applications of cutting-edge digital tools for social media research are designed for automation whereas we need methods designed to better connect (human) researchers with their interlocutors in the digital space. This collaborative project is an open-ended exploration of how to conduct research on visual social media moving beyond Big Data approaches towards culturally sensitive qualitative research.
Decolonizing Craft Narratives
This project examines how various actors in the craft world create meaning and value in their use and practice of craft. Through archival and ethnographic methods, this research links the historical divisions between craft and industry, the handmade and mechanized to contemporary questions of skill, meaning and value.
Strength Training on Instagram
This research in progress studies recreational strength training communities that have mushroomed online for women on Instagram. Using media and social media analysis, I compare strength training with other performance-oriented subcultures of the body, such as running and CrossFit. This research also examines the communicative features of Instagram as a social media app and how it normalizes alternate displays of female bodies.
Crafting Strength
Dominant narratives around contemporary fitness fetishize pain and suffering, almost as if they are the dues one must pay to ‘earn’ a fit body. This practice-based research seeks to disconnect the body from narratives of pain and suffering to imagine a more joyful path to fitness.
Consuming Comfort
How does the user actually perceive comfort? Is comfort aesthetic – relating to how something looks and is described (using words such as ‘light’ and ‘breathable’, for instance) or haptic – relating to qualities of touch, texture, fit, or both? My earlier research revealed that craft revivalists cited comfort as the reason why handloom textiles are the obvious user choice in the hot, humid weather that prevails in India. Was this true? This research combined ethnography, media research and material analysis to study the relationship between representations and perceptions of comfort among clothing users, focusing on haptic elements of textiles which influence user perceptions of comfort.
Project CRAFT
Project CRAFT is my initiative to create digital tools to augment craft production and consumption in Jodhpur, Rajasthan, using AR-VR and digitalization. Moreover, it sought the use of pattern recognition to help craft users obtain Intellectual Property Rights. Jodhpur, as India’s leading handicraft and furniture exporter, was a salient location for this pilot study. In order to understand the current status and challenges of the craft industry, I conducted problem validation research, using ethnographic methods, interviews, shadowing and observations as well as unstructured interactions in Jodhpur. This project received funding from the Government of India.
The Sari & Social Media
This research, part of my doctoral dissertation, emerged from my observations of sari revival movements on social media. Although saris occupy a lion’s share of the Indian retail market, why are they perceived as endangered and in need of revival? What do saris signify in the larger realm of culture and identity? This research linked identity projects on social media to the clothing consumption of women in urban India. I employed a mixed-methods approach entailing ethnography, social media analysis and quantitative market analysis to contextualize contemporary anxieties about identity within larger patterns of consumption.
A Cultural History of the Sari
This research, part of my doctoral dissertation, was conducted to unearth a cultural history of the sari as draped clothing. Using a mixed methods approach combining ethnography, archival research, media study, visual & material analysis, I studied the sari’s mutations through the colonial and postcolonial periods, focusing on the emergence of the Nivi style of drape, and what it signified about a new identity for Indian women. For whom was this new image fashioned, and whom did it exclude? I am presently writing a monograph about the Modern Sari.
Some more things
- Technical Communication
- Language for Technical Writing
- Academic Writing
- Communication Skill
- Sociocultural Theories
- Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
- Consumer Culture & Commodities
- Introduction to Cultural Studies
- Perspectives in Language & Literary Studies
- Literature in Translation
- Research Methodology
- English -Native Fluency
- Tamil -Native Fluency
- Hindi -Native Fluency
- Malayalam -Strong Spoken Fluency
- Spanish -Basic reading, writing, and comprehension (levels 1 and 2, Instituto Hispania, India)
- German -Basic reading, writing, and comprehension (levels 1 and 2, IIT Madras, India)
- Danish -Basic reading, and comprehension (level 1, Lærdansk, Denmark)
- Developmental Editing
- Content Strategy
- Qualitative Research
- Craft Research
- Operations management
- Project Management
- Teaching & Pedagogy
Contact
Email me at kaamyasharma at gmail dot com