Bio
Sarah Melsens is a Marie Sklodowska-Curie postdoctoral fellow at the Centre d’Etudes Sud-Asiatiques et Himalayennes (CNRS-EHESS) in Paris and FLAME University in India. Her research centers on the history and ethnography of architecture and construction in South Asia (19th-20th Century). Her current research project mobilizes historical building site photographs in participatory history-making events. Her work in the Indian city of Pune highlights the contributions of ‘forgotten' city builders such as labourers, Indian engineers in the British colonial service, and unsung architects engaged by speculative developers.
After training as an architectural engineer at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and as an urban designer at the Architectural Association in London, Sarah Melsens obtained a PhD in Architecture from the University of Antwerp in 2020. She is an honorary research associate at the University’s Henry van de Velde Research Group. In India, she has taught several courses at architecture colleges, including most recently a research studio at CEPT University in Ahmedabad.
Sarah Melsens is the Assistant Editor of ABE Journal - Architecture Beyond Europe and a member of the editorial committee of Construction History, International Journal of The Construction History Society. She is a founding member of the Pune Architectural History Archive (PAHA) and the scholarly platform PATIO - Platform for Architectural Transfers in the Indian Ocean rim.
Contact & Links
Mutsaardstraat 31 - 2000 Antwerpen - België
sarah.melsens@uantwerpen.be
Visit Sarah's UAntwerpen web page