Position

AHA Executive Director, 1995–99

Institution

North Carolina State University

Sandria Freitag was the AHA executive director from 1994–99. With a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, she has long explored a range of source materials used to answer new questions about ordinary people in Indian society (ranging from criminality to public-space activities), and tracing change from the British period through the 20th century.  The project she is completing now deals with the first two “mass”-produced and -consumed forms of visual culture—posters and photography—and what they reveal about the intersection of everyday life with participation in the larger patterns of public life in modern India. Her new work focuses on NGOs, as another aspect of public life, especially those dealing with the twin goals of craft perpetuation and social uplift.