Amarraah Ahmad

Thesis Supervisor: Sowparnika Balaswaminathan

Amarraah Ahmad is a first-year Master's student in the Department of Religions and Cultures. Originally from Dhaka, Bangladesh, she holds a Bachelor's of Social Sciences in Anthropology with a minor in Sociology from Brac University. Amarraah is a Southern Asian Studies fellow conducting research in Bangladesh.

With a background in Cultural Anthropology and a personal interest in crafts and art history, Amarraah's research is an interdisciplinary project that aims to explore the intergenerational knowledge, traditions and social organisations of rural artisans in Bangladesh. Her research will explore the exploitation of artisanal labour under the current zeitgeist of commodification and appropriation of rural culture in Dhaka and other urban centres.

Utilising mediums of Visual Anthropology, namely photography, she seeks to document the lives and works of hereditary artisans in rural Bangladesh. She aims to map the family lineages of such artisans and how their crafts are shaped by intersecting factors such as community, climate change, religion and politics, with an emphasis on the evolving techniques, aesthetic expression and adaptations to contemporary challenges.