Dr. Siddharth Pandey, “Magical Materialities: A Personal Journey through Enchanted Landscapes
Date: 22 March 2025
Time: 9.30 p.m. IST/ 9.00 a.m. PT
Venue: Online
Registration Link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeMO-ofeNFKzqfelRQr_-nU2jMZT6rBBNlZD20LZ2ddWg3fIA/viewform?usp=sharing
Registration Deadline: 20 March 2025
Talk Abstract
This talk explores the speaker’s relationship to magic, fantasy and enchantment in both intimate and academic ways. Adopting a reflective and conversational approach, it discusses how landscape and materiality became his core creative and critical concerns, especially during his journey as an interdisciplinary scholar. Whether exploring real or fictional terrains, from Himalayas to Hogwarts, the talk argues that these aspects are central to our appreciation of wonder.
About the Speaker
Siddharth Pandey is an interdisciplinary academic and creative practitioner from Shimla, currently based in Delhi-NCR. He has an MPhil and PhD from the Centre for Research in Children’s Literature, University of Cambridge (UK), where he was based as a Cambridge Commonwealth and Cambridge International Scholar from 2012-19. His doctoral thesis looked at the multifaceted ways in which ideas of making, craftmanship, embodiment and non-human materiality generate the sense of enchantment in fantasy narratives. Post-PhD, he received numerous research fellowships in art history, global history, travel cultures and globalization studies from the Yale Centre for British Art (Yale University USA), the Centre for Global History (Ludwig Maximilians University, Germany), the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art (London, UK), and the Käte Hamburger Centre for Advanced Studies in the Humanities ‘global dis:connect’) (Ludwig Maximilians University, Germany). His first book Fossil (2021) was published as part of the global arts endeavour running from Tasmania called ‘Lost Rocks,’ and was shortlisted for the 2022 Banff Mountain Literature Awards, widely considered the most prestigious global recognition for highland writing. He is also known as a landscape photographer, with numerous commissions and displays in India and abroad, including the Oriental Museum, Durham (UK), and at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (UK). He continues to write for a variety of media and academic platforms, and is currently working on diverse book projects related to enchanted landscapes. He can be found on Instagram @shimlasiddharthpandey.
