Siddharth Pandey Explained

Siddharth Pandey
Birth Date:8 July 1987
Nationality:Indian
Occupation:Writer, literary scholar, cultural historian, curator, and photographer
Notable Works:Fossil (2021)

Siddharth Pandey (born 8 July 1987) is a writer, literary scholar, cultural historian, curator, photographer, and musician from Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, India. His writings on Indian hill stations, popular culture, and materiality studies have appeared in academic publications as well as various Indian national-level English newspapers and online news forums. His landscape and architecture photographs have featured in solo and thematic exhibitions in India and the United Kingdom, including at the Victoria and Albert Museum at London. His first book of poetry, Fossil (2021), was a finalist for the Banff Mountain Book Awards in 2022.

Education

Pandey obtained a BA (Hons), Masters (MA) and MPhil in English Literature from the Delhi University. After that, he obtained an MPhil in Children’s Literature and a PhD in English and Materiality Studies from the University of Cambridge (2019). At Cambridge, he was based at the Homerton College. His doctoral advisor was Maria Nikolajeva. His doctoral thesis, titled Crafting, Conjuring, and the Aesthetic of Making: Towards a Materialistic Understanding of Fantasy, studies the ways in which ‘making’ - in forms such as human craftsmanship and non-human growth - impacts the creation of ‘wonder’ in the worlds of fantasy literature.[1] [2] [3] [4] Pandey has also pursued a parallel research interest in the evolving cultural and aesthetic politics of Shimla in particular and Himachal Pradesh more generally.

Pandey has been the recipient of several scholarships and fellowships. Among others, these include a Cambridge Commonwealth Shared Scholarship, a Cambridge International Scholarship, Charles Wallace India Trust grants, and a research support grant from the Paul Mellon Centre.[5] [6] [7]

Pandey has held postdoctoral fellowships at the Yale University and the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.[8] [9]

Reception of writings

Pandey has researched and written about fantasy and children’s literature, hill stations in India, nature writing, craft theory, folk culture, cinema studies, and pop culture. Pandey's writings have appeared in peer-reviewed journals and academic anthologies. Pandey's writings have also appeared on several South Asian newspapers and mass-media forums. These include The Hindu, The Indian Express, The Pioneer, The Tribune, Frontline, Live Wire, Outlook, Quint, Scroll.in, and The News.[10] [11]

Indian hill stations

Jeffrey A. Auerbach writes of Pandey's essay 'Simla or Shimla: The Indian Political Re-appropriation of Little England' (2014) as a 'postcolonial counter-narrative' to the colonial, predominantly British origins of Shimla as the summer capital of the British Raj.[12] An essay by Pandey on Indian hill stations appears in Between Heaven and Earth: Writings on the Indian Hills (2022), an anthology of eminent historical and contemporary non-fiction writing on Indian hills, selected and edited by Ruskin Bond and Bulbul Sharma. In her book review of this anthology in The Tribune, Sarika Sharma comments: "Siddharth Pandey’s essay is a refreshing take on the femininity of hill stations in a country brimming with toxic masculinity."[13]

Fantasy literature

Commenting on Pandey's work in fantasy literature, Simone Kotva of the University of Cambridge writes: "Siddharth’s work looks at the representation of magic in fantasy and speculative fiction. His work upends the clichéd understanding of magic as escapist, free-form and otherworldly and demonstrates instead its close relationship to artistic making, landscape and attentiveness to material becoming." The Indian naturalist and educator Yuvan Aves extends Pandey's arguments about the non-centralised, dispersed nature of magic in imagined magical worlds (in modern western fantasy literature) to his own understanding of the natural world, wherein he regards 'the ocean and the living earth' as intrinsically a magical place, where 'everything lives, everything speaks'.[14]

Aesthetics

Several of Pandey's writings in mass media have been about the aesthetics of nature, cinema, everyday culture, and craft. Felix Ehlers of the Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich, writes that Pandey's work enables one to see beauty and aesthetics as an alternative, creative approach to mediation in the Anthropocene, rather than the stereotypically dystopian views around this age. As a Fellow of the Käte Hamburger Research Centre on Global Dis:connect in Munich (2022-23), Pandey organised a two-day workshop on the theme 'Ecology, aesthetics and everyday cultures of modernity' in July 2023.[15]

Poetry

Pandey's book Fossil (2021), his geo-mythological-poetic exploration of the Himalayas, was a finalist in the 'Mountain Fiction and Poetry' category at the Banff Mountain Book Festival of Canada in 2022.[16] Banff mountain book awards are considered major recognitions for mountain literature in all forms from across the world.[17] [18] Fossil also features in the essay 'Otters for Books for Children and Families' by the British artist Jackie Morris on her website.[19]

Photographic exhibitions

Pandey is primarily known as a photographer of built and natural landscapes. He has had a longstanding interest in the colonial-era built heritage of Shimla and its interaction with the surrounding natural landscape, as well as in old kinds of Indian and European architectures.[20]

Music

Pandey is a pianist, and has composed pieces inspired by Himalayan and Celtic influences.[28]

Bibliography

Academic publications

Poetry

References

  1. Web site: Siddarth Pandey - gloknos . 2023-08-09 . Siddarth Pandey - gloknos . en.
  2. Web site: Käte Hamburger Research Centre, LMU, Munich . 2022-09-20 . Siddharth Pandey joins global dis:connect . 2023-08-09 . global dis:connect . en-US.
  3. Web site: Kotva . Simone . December 8, 2020 . 'Magic and Ecology' Podcast episode 1: Siddharth Pandey . 2023-08-09 . magicecology.crassh.cam.ac.uk . en-GB.
  4. Pandey . Siddharth . 2020 . Emplacing Tasks of Magic: Hand, Land, and the Generation of Fantasy Taskscape in Terry Pratchett's Tiffany Aching Series . GeoHumanities . en . 6 . 1 . 39–50 . 10.1080/2373566X.2020.1735474.
  5. Web site: Siddharth Pandey Scholar Spotlights Scholars . 2023-08-10 . www.cambridgetrust.org.
  6. Web site: 2020-10-16 . Siddharth's story . 2023-08-10 . Charles Wallace India Trust . en-US.
  7. Web site: 2020 . Grants and Fellowships Awarded - Autumn 2020 . paul-mellon-centre.ac.uk.
  8. Web site: 2019–2020 . Visiting Fellows . britishart.yale.edu.
  9. Web site: Siddharth Pandey - Munich Centre for Global History - LMU Munich . 2023-08-10 . www.globalhist.geschichte.uni-muenchen.de . en.
  10. Web site: 2021-12-01 . Now is when you mutilate a massif by Siddharth Pandey . 2023-08-09 . whenisnow.org . en-US.
  11. Web site: 2020-10-16 . Siddharth's story . 2023-08-09 . Charles Wallace India Trust . en-US.
  12. Book: Auerbach, Jeffrey A. . Imperial Boredom: Monotony and the British Empire . 2018 . Oxford University Press . 978-0-19-256231-9 . 170 and 240 . en.
  13. News: Sharma . Sarika . August 28, 2022 . 'Between Heaven and Earth: Of hills and hill stations . The Tribune .
  14. Book: Aves, Yuvan . Intertidal: a Coast and March Diary . Bloomsbury . 2023 . 86.
  15. Ehlers . Felix . 2023 . Finding aesthetics everywhere: recalling a workshop on Ecology, aesthetics and everyday cultures of modernity . Static: Thoughts and Research from Global Dis:connect . 2 . 2 . 113–121.
  16. Web site: Smart . Dave . 2022-09-15 . Banff Mountain Book Competition Categories announced, climbing book lovers take note . 2023-08-09 . Gripped Magazine . en-US.
  17. Web site: Qiao . Vicky . October 20, 2021 . Canadian writers Suzanne Simard, Jessica J. Lee among Banff Mountain Book Award winners . cbc.ca.
  18. Web site: McLemore . Andrew . 2022-10-21 . 2022 Banff Mountain Book Award Winners Announced » Explorersweb . 2023-08-10 . Explorersweb.
  19. Web site: Morris . Jackie . October 31, 2021 . Otters for Books for Children and Families . 2023-08-09 . Jackie Morris Artist . en.
  20. Web site: Sharma . Ashima . September 2014 . Exquisite Photographic Visionist: Siddharth Pandey Keekli . 2023-08-09 . en-US.
  21. News: October 16, 2013 . Exhibition of photographs of British landscapes, architecture . The Tribune .
  22. Web site: Siddharth Pandey Scholar Spotlights Scholars . 2023-08-09 . www.cambridgetrust.org.
  23. News: Joshi . Shriniwas . June 23, 2014 . Siddharth Pande clicks to motivate people . The Tribune .
  24. Web site: 2016 . Durham University: What's On (October 2016 to March 2017) .
  25. Web site: July 25, 2016 . PhD Student's photography commissioned by Victoria and Albert . 2023-08-09 . www.educ.cam.ac.uk . en.
  26. Web site: 2017-01-07 . The crafty imperialist . 2023-08-09 . Apollo Magazine . en-US.
  27. Web site: Artist's Statement . www.highlandhomes2023.com.
  28. Web site: Matthews . Susan . February 19, 2024 . Featured podcast episode - 'Movement, Mountains, Metamorphosis and Music' . darknlight.com.

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