2011 - Date
Principal Investigator
Centre for Creativity, Heritage and Development, India
Project: “Materiality and Mobility” (MOM)
Funded by Donors of CCHD, India & Collaborative Partners
This major project of the centre seeks to investigate, present and further the understanding of the dynamics of cultural production by tracing the intertwined biographies of people and things.
The research for this project has been pursued in India and inter-related social-cultural spheres in the geographical regions of the UK, USA and Canada.
The research findings have been presented as papers and lectures in several international institutions and in international conferences and seminars worldwide including University of Cambridge, UK, University of Oxford, UK, Harvard University, USA, University of Ottawa, Canada.
Publication outcomes include books, book chapters in edited volumes and articles in international journals with publishers including Berghahn, Oxford and New York, Bloomsbury Academic, London, University College London, UK, World Crafts Council, Belgium and Common Ground Publishing, Champaign-Illinois.
Film productions include documentaries and musicals that have been screened at various international platforms including The British Museum, Cape Breton University and University of Ottawa.
The MOM research project has also led to collaborations with institutions working on similar interests as detailed below.
2010 – 2013
Associate Researcher,
Queen’s University Belfast, UK
Project: “Creativity and Innovation in a World of Movement” (CIM).
Funded by Humanities European Research Area (HERA), UK
The project analyses how globalising forces may stimulate or hamper creative forms of cultural production in concrete interlinked social spheres in Europe, India, Africa Australia and the Caribbean. It provides new understandings of the practices/conditions of visual production in an era of increasing global interconnectedness.
Dr. Kala Shreen worked with the Project Leader (PL) Dr. Maruska Svasek and with other members in various capacities in the CIM project.
In 2012, she contributed two articles to the online education resources edited by Dr. Amit Desai for The Open University, UK.
In 2013, she produced a paper with the PL, based on joint research conducted in Chennai, India, which was presented at an international conference in Queen’s University Belfast.
In 2016 she has published a chapter in the volume edited by Maruska Svasek and Birgit Meyer for Berghahn Publishers, Oxford and New York.
2011 – 2013
Research Partner & Co-ordinator,World Crafts Summit,
World Crafts Council, Belgium (affiliated to UNESCO)
Project: “Documentation of the World Crafts Summit”.
Funded by World Crafts Council
The project involved the documentation of all the activities and deliberations of the World Crafts Summit held in Chennai in 2012 and in the organization of the international seminar ‘Future is Handmade’. The documentation was based on research work conducted through the observation of the various events, interviewing the participants and visitors and the visual documentation of the summit.
The outcome of this assignment in 2013 was a 250-page book “Celebrating Crafts” covering the summit in detail and comprising over 100 photographs.
Dr. Kala Shreen apart from compiling the book and curating various articles in the book and contributing several photographs, also produced chapters in the book including the Epilogue
This collaboration with the World Crafts Council led to her working closely with Ms.Usha Krishna (President of World Crafts Council) on craft development projects and resulted in a research paper presented in an international conference at Jawaharlal Nehru University, India in 2012.
Based on this research paper, in 2015, Dr. Kala Shreen also contributed a chapter in the edited volume by Annabella Pollen and Charlotte Nicklas for Bloomsbury Academic, London.
The following three research projects have also led to continuing outcomes, such as paper presentations, publications and film screenings on Nagarathar material culture and ceremonies from 2010 onwards. For details please see (conferences, seminars and lectures, publications, collaborations and visual productions).
Nov 2008-Feb 2009
Principal Investigator
Project: “Material Religion & Emotions: Rites of Passage of Nagarathar Children”.
Funded by The Chettinad House, Chennai, India
A research study was conducted in Chennai on the rituals of the Nagarathar community. The outcomes of this research were a book and docufilm titled “Return of the Rituals: Rites of Passage of Nagarathar Children”.
2008 - 2009
Faculty Research Fellow at CERIS, University of Toronto, Canada.
Project: “Immigrant Religiosity: A Case of Canadian Nagarathars”.
Funded by Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, Canada
A research study was conducted on the religious practices and its continuities and adaptations among the Nagarathar community in and around Toronto Area, Ontario.
March 2007 – June 2007
Residential Research Fellow at Queen’s University Belfast, U.K.
Research area: The religious practices among Hindus in India and the diaspora with emphasis on the Nagarathar community hailing from Tamilnadu.
Research Assistant (1996-1999) and Research/Project Associate (1999-2004) Dr.V. Sudarsen, Head, Department of Anthropology, University of Madras.
2003-2004: Project: “Tribal Development in Watershed Areas Through Community Participation: A Study at Javadhu hills, Thiruvannamalai, Tamilnadu” sponsored by a major corporate trust (TVS-Sundaram Services Trust).
Feb 2003- July 2003: Project: “An Ethnographic Study of Oddar, Godda, Boya and Bandi” – Chennai city, sponsored by Society for the Upliftment of Boyar community.
2001-2002: Project: “An Assessment of Status of Elementary Education in Tamil Nadu”, sponsored by TANPIC, an NGO in Chennai.
2001-2002: Project: “Tribes and Development: A Study of Tribes of Tamil Nadu” for the Tamil Nadu Tribal People’s Association.
1997-2000: Project: “Operations Research for Reducing Maternal Anaemia”, sponsored by UNICEF: Educating the women of low socio-economic status on maternal anaemia (in Tamilnadu.)
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