Alumni Feature | Ekta Chauhan, Master’s in Public Policy ‘17

Ekta Chauhan, a 2017 batch alumnus, is currently pursuing her PhD at Brandenburg Technical University (Germany) in World Heritage Studies. Her PhD research focuses on community participation and democratic decision making in cultural heritage tourism in New Delhi. In addition, she also works as a Teaching Assistant for Master’s-level courses on “Globalisation and Culture” and “Introduction to World Heritage Studies” at her university. Now being on the other side of the class as a teacher, she utilises the skills, as well as experiences, learnt during her time at NLSIU while facing her class every week. She says “I have grown up around a monument (Khirki Masjid) which I could see from my terrace. I was always interested in architecture and heritage. Before my Master’s, I did my BA (Hons) in History from St. Stephen’s College which furthered my interest in history. However, I wanted to use this knowledge for the development of local communities and studying public policy was a perfect fit. India is blessed with a wealth of heritage (tangible and intangible) resources and I wanted to unlock this potential for the socio-economic development of its people.” “MPP at NLSIU helped me in understanding the processes of governance as well as gave me good exposure to theories and methods of research. It helped me find my research interests in urban heritage development and democratic decision making through its diverse curriculum and supporting faculty. My research interest in heritage policies of my home city – Delhi – started with my dissertation on ‘Social and Economic Impacts of Heritage Conservation in Delhi.’ Heritage policy is a very new area of interest in the world of Public Policy and thus understudied. I wanted to contribute towards generating knowledge in the field and hence my decision to do a PhD.” MPP trains its participants well in both management skills as well as research and writing skills. Ekta finds her rigorous training in academic writing during the course an asset for her research career. Remembering her thesis writing days at MPP she says, “My guide (Prof. N. Jayaram) would make me write and rewrite my thesis till I got every citation, every punctuation and every sentence right.” Ekta is also leading an Oral History Archive Project called “Dilli ki Khirki” that aims to record and archive the personal histories of the people of Khirki Village (New Delhi). Her long term goal is to bring people closer to their heritage and culture through education, economic opportunities and social development.