Had such a productive time at #DH2026 and made some great DH South Asia friends.

Was supposed to be in Korea right now attending @dh2026daejeon.bsky.social sigh Thanks to @deepthimurali.bsky.social for letting me vicariously live thru the cafe hopping experience & dealing with my sleep addled brain at the 1st miniconf we organized on Global South/Majority Community building

My colleague @deepthimurali.bsky.social writes on the power of museum metadata: looking across a century of acquisitions, administrative details like donor names and classifications become historical data showing how an institution actively defined and shaped what "South Asia" meant.

South Asia Collections at The Met: A Preliminary Computational Look

A preliminary computational analysis of 5,000+ MET objects reveals how South Asian art entered the collection — who donated it, when, and what happens to it now.

rrchnm.org

Applications for this 2-year postdoc at @cmu.edu are starting to be reviewed now, so don't delay! Please spread the news to your local #DH networks. One of the people you'll be working with is me :) I am excited to meet this new colleague and collaborate on computational humanities in Pittsburgh!

Katie McDonough@kmcdono.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Job! Postdoctoral Fellow in Computational Humanities & Publishing at Carnegie Mellon - cmu.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/CMU/de...

Excited to share some of my initial work on looking at museums metadata as historical archive. I peeped into the metadata from The Met to look at the history of collecting South Asian object there. Read more: www.deepthimurali.com/art-history-... #arthistory #digitalhistory

How the Met Collected South Asia: A Data-Driven History — Deepthi Murali

A preliminary computational analysis of 5,000+ MET objects reveals how South Asian art entered the collection — who donated it, when, and what happens to it now.

deepthimurali.com

I appreciate the shout out and the NEH's 2024 investment in a project that allowed @jeanettepatrick.bsky.social and me, with the support of Mills Kelly, to bring together over 50 scholars and voice actors from 7 countries to explore a revolutionary world far more complicated than many may realize.

National Endowment for the Humanities@nehgov.bsky.social · 4mo ago

AMERICA 250 | As the Revolution spread throughout the colonies, lives of everyday citizens were thrust into chaos. In the NEH-supported podcast, @georgemasonu.bsky.socialexplores the implications of the war on the greater population in “Worlds Turned Upside Down." buff.ly/I3Z0h7b

I wrote about Karan Johar’s and Manish Malhotra’s capes at The Met Gala 2026 and what that means for Indian art history and artisanal labor. www.deepthimurali.com/textiles-talk/2026/5/making-labor-visible-wearing-india-loudly-craft-capital-and-contradiction-at-the-met-gala-2026 #metgala2026 #india

Wearing India Loudly: Karan Johar and Manish Malhotra at the Met Gala 2026 — Deepthi Murali

There is something uneasy about writing this, and I want to say why before I say anything else. I am an art historian of South Asia. The objects I spend my professional life studying—ivory and wood o...

deepthimurali.com

Best part of my Friday already is hearing the awesome @brettbobley.bsky.social keynote at the Brown Digital Scholarship Lab conference. Cherry on top: hearing him confirm that the “DOGE Boys” who canceled all the NEH grants are as douchey in real life as we all expected them to be.

Cannons, kettledrums, crosses, and Tamil inscriptions—carved in stone at Udayagiri Fort. New post on European military epitaphs and what they tell us about service and sovereignty in 18th-c. Travancore. www.deepthimurali.com/kerala/2026/2/the-epitaph-of-de-lannoy-in-eighteenth-century-travancore

European Epitaphs at Udayagiri Fort: Military Service and Faith in Eighteenth-Century Travancore — Deepthi Murali

Latin and Tamil epitaphs at Udayagiri Fort document European military service in the Travancore state through iconography, text, and material form.

deepthimurali.com

Happy holidays everyone! Early declaration of one of my 2026 resolutions … being that I will post more over here. So question for y’all - what do we talk about on here mostly? #academics #history

Next Tuesday, on the 250th anniversary of her birth, the search for Jane Austen begins. Join @annefertig.bsky.social on a journey to find the Jane you only thought you knew. Follow "Finding Jane Austen" on YouTube, Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your favorite podcasts.

Had a short but amazing visit to Chicago for the #SSHA conference. @rrchnm.bsky.social had a full panel on mapping for the public put together by our wonderful PhD student Alexandra Miller. Also met my dissertation committee members & friends from the PhD program. And did the Chriskindl market run!

Had a wonderful conference panel experience at #NCABS2025 in Montreal. We talked about textiles in the Indian Ocean World broadly and de-centering Europe in the discussion of British empire material culture. (Also tried poutine for the first time!) #arthistory #histoty #textiles

Check out @deepthimurali.bsky.social's recent appearance on the Omohundro Institute of Early American History & Culture Digital Projects Coffeehouse where she presented "Connecting Threads: Indian Madras and Afro-Caribbean Consumers" youtu.be/whi8KY3Vwdg?...

Connecting Threads: Indian Madras and Afro-Caribbean Consumers

YouTube video by Omohundro Institute

youtu.be

I wrote about "disciplining" of "deceitful" Indian textile workers in the 17th century. And about the use of morality and affective language as ways of ordering colonial trade. www.deepthimurali.com/textiles-tal... #indianhistory #textilehistory #britishempire #history

"Unless we stand continually over them with rods in our hands...": Intimidating Indian Textile Workers in 17th Century — Deepthi Murali

In the autumn of 1675, the East India Company’s Agent and Council at Fort St. George drafted a letter brimming with frustration. The calicoes from Madras, they complained, had grown “ much thinner...

deepthimurali.com

A rare glimpse into the lives of 18th century weavers: a father, 2 sons, & 2 grandsons all weavers, around the First Carnatic War. And how the brothers “Narryn” & “Chinnatomby” founded the Chintadripet region of Chennai India: www.deepthimurali.com/all-about-te... #chennai #textilehistory #madras

Did you know the area of Chintadripet in Chennai was founded by Tamil weavers? — Deepthi Murali

If you’ve ever driven past the narrow lanes of Chintadripet in central Chennai — now lined with hardware shops, workshops, and temples — you’re passing through what was once one of the earliest planne...

deepthimurali.com

Tomorrow! We’ll journey from South Asia to the Caribbean to explore the colorful world of the textile trade by Connecting Threads with @deepthimurali.bsky.social. Register to join us!

Deepthi Murali@deepthimurali.bsky.social · 11mo ago

Speaking at @oieahc.bsky.social Digital Coffeehouse series tomorrow (Tuesday, Oct 14, 12pm EST) about my project Connecting Threads: Fashioning Madras in the Caribbean. I am talking about 18th-19th century Indian textiles & Caribbean dress/identity. Sign-up: omohundro.app.neoncrm.com/np/clients/o...

Speaking at @oieahc.bsky.social Digital Coffeehouse series tomorrow (Tuesday, Oct 14, 12pm EST) about my project Connecting Threads: Fashioning Madras in the Caribbean. I am talking about 18th-19th century Indian textiles & Caribbean dress/identity. Sign-up: omohundro.app.neoncrm.com/np/clients/o...

Wrote a brief intro about the 2 Sati Stones at the Archaeological Museum in Thrissur, Kerala. Curious to see how this tradition developed on the Malabar Coast. In other parts of peninsular India they became quite elaborate in narrative structure. www.deepthimurali.com/kerala/2025/... #art #kerala

Stones of Memory: Two Sati Stones at the Archaeological Museum in Thrissur — Deepthi Murali

Preliminary look at the two Sati Stones (in the Virakkal tradition) at the Thrissur Archeological Museum in Kerala

deepthimurali.com

The @oieahc.bsky.social Digital Projects Coffeehouse Series returns October 14th! We're kicking things off with @deepthimurali.bsky.social, co-director of Connecting Threads: Fashioning Madras in India and the Caribbean Sign up now to join the conversation. oieahc.wm.edu/events-overv...

OI Digital Projects Coffeehouse - OIEAHC

Begun in winter 2021 as a way of bringing people together virtually while the pandemic kept us apart physically, the OI Coffeehouse has proven a valuable online gathering place for many in the early A...

oieahc.wm.edu

Talking about Indian textiles, colonialism and 18th-19th century dress and identity in India and the Caribbean. Friday. Online and in-person at @georgemasonu.bsky.social

Getting back into the habit of blogging about research. Here’s a rather random account of tea and handkerchief smuggling on board an East Indiaman. Doors were broken. www.deepthimurali.com/thieves-in-t... #history #eastindiacompany #tea

Smuggling Tea and Handkerchiefs? — Deepthi Murali

A snippet from aboard the British East India Company ship in 1712.

deepthimurali.com

"One of many!" How did the East India Company get its start on the Indian sub-continent? Contributing expert @deepthimurali.bsky.social of George Mason University takes us back to the reign of Elizabeth I in this clip from Episode 16: The Tea.

The #NEHfunded @deepthimurali.bsky.social 's Connecting Threads project focused on the global history of fashion. It connects small museums & archives to places with larger collections through a queryable database connectingthreads.co.uk

Connecting Threads

Fashioning Madras in India and the Caribbean

connectingthreads.co.uk

Our NEH grant for the Connecting Threads project was terminated along with many others. With little pomp and no warning. Also not sure if we will ever have any grants to apply for at the NEH. This is a big hit on grants-based, collaborative and digital humanities research in the US.

The Dept of Art, Art History & Visual Studies at Duke University is hiring an Analyst, IT - Digital Humanities Specialist. Position works primarily with fac/staff/students in our Digital Art History and Visual Culture Research Lab and related programs. Posting: careers.duke.edu/job/Durham-A...

Postdoctoral position in critical caste studies at the university of Chicago- still accepting applications! apply.interfolio.com/157701

We end the semester with presentations on nationalism in Bengali plays, materiality of Partition, and some well-deserved samosas and pani puri. #teachinghistory

Thanks to Dr. Neilesh Bose for putting together this colloquium at University of Victoria (BC). This was such a productive experience. I finally shared research I have been sitting on, on these beautiful ivory tankards from Travancore. Tankard featured: early 20th century at Napier Museum, Kerala.

Slowly posting about Connecting Threads project launch/symposium at V&A Museum last month. This is a digital public history project and the website is now live at: connectingthreads.co.uk The whole day was incredible! #connectingthreads #academicsky #digitalhistory #indianhistory #caribbeanhistory