phd

PhD Thesis Title: The Memetic Anatomy of a Fall: A Microhistory of 9/11 Told Through the Internet Meme.

PhD Supervisor: Davide Rodogno / Aidan Russell (Second Reader)

A work in progress, my doctoral dissertation intends to focus on establishing memes as primary sources to reconstruct a popular history of perception for the 9/11 event in the United States of America. The thesis seeks to use memes and their corresponding role as channels for audience expression to understand why the specter of 9/11 manifests within American popular culture in the manner that it does.
 

Profile

I pursued an undergraduate degree at St Stephen’s College in India and received training as a traditional historian. A master’s degree at the Graduate Institute in 2022 was seminal to cementing my interest in memes and their utility as historical sources. I have worked as a Teaching Fellow at Ashoka University in India between my time as a master’s student and a PhD candidate.
 

Research Interests
 

• Visual cultures
• United States of America and the September 11 Attacks
• Audiencing and Perception
• Semiotics
• Meaning-Making
• Production of Memes
   

Awards
 

• Arditi Prize in International Studies (2023) for best master’s thesis titled In Me(me)oriam: Memes, Imaginations of the Past and New Ways of Telling History.