Arna Dirghangi

Profile

I am a PhD scholar at the School of Fine Arts, History of Art and Cultural Studies, fully funded by the University of Leeds Arts, Humanities and Cultures (AHRC) full-time Doctoral Scholarship 2024-2027.

I graduated from Presidency University, Kolkata with a BA (Hons) and MA in English in 2021 and 2023, achieving a first-class-first rank during my undergraduate degree. Since my university years, I have been associated as an archival and transcription intern with various digital archives and museums of the 1947 Partition. I am an avid translator by passion, having worked as a Bengali-English translator for the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Govt. of India and The People’s Archive of Rural India (PARI).

Research interests

My thesis explores how postmemories of the 1947 Partition are constructed and encountered amongst third-generation South Asian Brits in England. With postmemories as the anchor, I focus on the role of digital archives and England as the sites through which they are studied. Both environments (physical and digital) act as vessels where postmemories are formed and reshape affect. This is then connected to the broader context of multiculturalism and transnationalism in contemporar England and the significance of the digital inheritance of the 1947 Partition in the country, almost 80 years after its commencement.

Qualifications

• MA English, Presidency University, Kolkata, India (First Class)
• BA (Honours) English, Presidency University, Kolkata, India (First Class, First, University topper)