swati

Swati Simha

‏Swati is a playwright and researcher based in Delhi. She is a PhD candidate at Jawaharlal Nehru University.

She has a masters degree in Inter-cultural Communication Studies from Shanghai Theatre Academy. She wrote a play based on birth related healthcare inequalities for the Birth festival at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester in 2016. She was also part of the Climate Crisis project of Royal Court theatre in 2019. Her works have been performed at the Edinburgh International Festival, Colombo International festival, Shanghai International Festival and Serendipity arts festival. She won the Toto award for creative writing for her play ‘Echoing Chamber’.

She was an elected representative of the Gender Sensitization Committee against Sexual Harassment on JNU campus in 2017.

EDUCATION:

  • Ph.D., Comparative Politics and Political Theory, Jawaharlal Nehru University, 2018- Concentration: Discourses on caste identity in the Kannada the Public Sphere in 1970s and 1980s: A study of works of D.R. Nagaraj. Dissertation Advisor: Mohinder Singh, Ph.D.
  • M.Phil., Comparative Politics and Political Theory, Jawaharlal Nehru University, 2018 Concentrations: Early Modern Indian Philosophy, Ownership, Self. Dissertation: Ownership and Self-Ownership in Early Modern Indian Philosophy – A Survey of Navya-Nyāya Arguments. Dissertation Advisor: Mohinder Singh, Ph.D.
  • M.A., Intercultural Communication Studies, Shanghai Theatre Academy, 2015 Concentrations: Modernism, Colonialism, Gender Thesis: Understanding Modern Identities through Drama – Ibsen’s ‘Nora’ in India and China. Thesis Advisor: Stephen Larsen, Ph.D.
  • B.A, Liberal Education, Major in Theatre, FLAME University, 2013 Performance Project: Wrote, directed and performed Santawanam - A play about a 17th Century Courtesan and her erotica.

TEACHING EXPERIENCE:

  • Teaching Fellow, Ashoka University. Courses: "Introduction to Critical Thinking" (Sept 2018)

PUBLICATIONS:

  • Simha, Swati. (2017). “Birthing a Critique of Modernity.” Critical Stages/ Scènes critiques, The IATC journal/Revue de l'AICT – June/Juin 2018: Issue No 17. http://www.criticalstages.org/17/birthing-a-critique-of-modernity/