Varda Nisar is currently enrolled as a PhD student in the Art History Department at Concordia University. Having worked for the Karachi Biennale for two editions, and having run her own Children’s Art Fest, she has been involved in art education in Pakistan, where there to this day remains little access to public art, and where the study of art itself is limited to primary school only in all public schools, thus effectively rendering it a child’s play. She was also a 2015-16 Fellow for Arthink South Asia; in 2012, she was selected for a month long Cultural Heritage Workshop in 2012, organized by Smithsonian, University of Wisconsin, and American Institute of Pakistan Studies.
Currently her research is focused on national narratives in national institution in Pakistan, and the role they play in creating a hegemonic identity for the post-colonial nation state. Her previous research on the Silawat Community – the original stone masons in her city of Karachi – has been presented in a number of conferences. keywords that highlight my research interests National museums, Art Education, Biennales and Festivals, hegemony, postcolonialism. Blurb of University Concordia University is welcoming, engaged, and committed to innovation and excellence in education, research, creative activity and community partnerships. It dares to be different and draws on its diversity to transform the individual, strengthen society and enrich the world. Concordia’s core values stem from those long prized by its founding institutions, Loyola College and Sir George Williams University. Concordia adopted the motto of the city of Montreal, Concordia salus, which speaks to well-being through harmony. The union of two very different institutions of higher education has led to an exceptionally successful synthesis of compatible and timely values. |