Priyanka Basu

Dr Priyanka Basu is a Lecturer in Performing Arts at King’s College London’s Department of Culture, Media & Creative Industries (Faculty of Arts & Humanities). She holds Visiting Fellowships at University College London’s Institute of Advanced Studies and SOAS South Asia Institute. Her expertise bridges South Asian Studies with interdisciplinary research on cultural politics, performance histories, and gender labour dynamics.

Educated at Jawaharlal Nehru University (MA/MPhil in English Literature) and SOAS (PhD in South Asian Studies with Felix Scholarship), her work focuses on authenticity in folk performances, transnational cultural networks, and decolonizing archives. She co-edits special journal issues on ‘Print and Islam’ and ‘Ecology, Music and Community in South Asia’.

Her research explores Cold War-era performer migrations, rural women’s craft economies, and Second World War-era dance histories. She teaches courses on cultural management, performance studies, and creative industries.

Awarded prestigious fellowships and editorial roles, she also serves on the Gender and Intersectionality on Indian and Diasporic (GRID) Heritage Network. Previously, she curated the British Library’s ‘Two Centuries of Indian Print’ project and organized public engagement initiatives with South Asian cultural collections.