Soumya Dasgupta (Shoumo)

architecture enshrines history, theory, and practice

I am a Ph.D. Candidate in Architecture (History and Theory) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, USA.  I earned a Master's in Urban Design from the School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi, and a Bachelor of Architecture from the Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology, Shibpur, Kolkata, India. 

My scholarly interests include neoliberal developmentalism, digital technocracy, Global South, and South Asia. My Ph.D. dissertation broadly explores the contested systems of architectural production in the rapidly transforming context of  21st-century urban India. I have presented my research at academic conferences, including the SAH, ACSA, and IASTE, as well as Ph.D. symposiums at Georgia Tech, AA London, and UCLA. 

I am an awardee of the Humanities Research Institute Graduate Fellowship for 2023-24 and a former recipient of the Illinois Distinguished Fellowship. I also received the Nicholson Fellowship to attend and earn a certificate from the School of Criticism and Theory, Cornell University, and noted my reflections here. 

I love teaching and have worked as a Teaching Assistant for graduate-level history, theory, and design studio courses in Architecture. I have served as an external reviewer in various design studios in India, South Africa, and the USA. 

I am currently co-teaching a graduate design studio with architect Patricia Saldaña Natke, founding partner of UrbanWorks, Chicago. I have also assisted Plym Professor architect Mark Raymond for analog, a collaborative graduate design studio between the Illinois School of Architecture and Unit 13, Graduate School of Architecture, Johannesburg, South Africa. A film documenting this studio and featuring my perspective can be found here.