AMITA SINHA
PROFESSOR, DEPARTMENT OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA CHAMPAIGN
I. PERSONAL HISTORY AND EDUCATION BACKGROUND
A. Educational background
B.Arch, (Five year professional degree program), Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India, 1981.
M.Arch, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, Blacksburg, VA, 1983.
Ph.D. in Architecture, University of California at Berkeley, 1989.
B. List of Academic Positions since Final Degree
Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Landscape Architecture, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, 1989-1990.
Assistant Professor, Department of Landscape Architecture, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, 1990-1996.
Affiliate Associate Professor, Program in South Asian and Middle-Eastern Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, 1996-2007.
Associate Professor, Department of Landscape Architecture, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, 1996-2008.
Professor, Department of Landscape Architecture, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, 2008-present.
C. Other Professional Employment
Assistant Architect in Stein, Doshi and Bhalla, Architects and Engineers, New Delhi, India, 1981-1983.
D. Honors, Recognitions and Outstanding Achievements
Beckman Research Award Recipient, 1992.
National Merit Award, American Society of Landscape Architects for Cultural Heritage Project on Taj Mahal, India, (with Vince Bellafiore and Terence Harkness), 2001.
Outstanding and Inspiring Leadership Award, Indian Consulate, Chicago, 2003.
Research and Cultural Awareness Award, Eco-Development Foundation, New Delhi, India, 2007.
Senior Fulbright Research Scholar in New Delhi, India, Spring 2009.
Society for American City and Regional Planning History (SACRPH)'s prize for the best article "Jamshedpur: Planning an Ideal Steel City in India" (co-authored with Jatinder Singh) published in 2011-2013 in the Journal of Planning History, USA.
E. Invited Lectures and Invited Conference Presentations
“Taj Mahal Cultural Heritage District: A Study in Open Space Types.” Public Lecture in Government College of Art and Architecture, Lucknow, India, 2000.
“Champaner Pavagadh Arcaheological Park”. Public Lecture in Department of Architecture, Institute of Integral Technology, Lucknow, India, 2001.
“Indian Architectural History: A Post-Colonial Perspective”. Public Lecture in School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi, India, 2002.
“Champaner Pavagadh Cultural Sanctuary”. Public Lectures at Department of Architecture, Institute of Integral Technology and Department of Architecture, Babu Banarasi Das National Institute of Technology, Lucknow, India, 2004.
“Taj Mahal Cultural Heritage District Development Plan”. Public lecture in the Department of Landscape Architecture, Texas A & M, College Station, Texas, 2004.
“The Yamuna Riverfront: A Comparative Study of Islamic and Hindu Traditions in Cultural Landscapes”. Public Lecture in the Department of Architecture, Babu Banarasi Das National Institute of Technology, Lucknow, India, 2005.
“Visual Representations of the Taj and Landscape Design”, Invited Lecture, Linking Latitudes Conference organized by the Australian Federation of Teachers in Agra, India, 2007.
“Women and Memorial Parks in Lucknow, India”, Invited Lecture, Symposium on The Patronage and Production of Art by Women in Modern South Asia organized Shangri-La, Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art, Honolulu, Hawai, May 2008.
“Memorial Parks in Lucknow, India”, Public Lectures in Government College of Art and Architecture, Lucknow, India, and School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi, India, 2009.
“Gomti Riverfront: Revitalization of a Cultural Heritage Landscape”, Public Lectures in Babu Banarasi Das National Institute of Technology, Lucknow, India, 2009.
“Natural Heritage and Cultural Landscapes”, Invited presentation at The International Festival of Sacred Arts, Delhi, 2009.
“Landscapes in India: Myths and Symbols”, Invited talk at The Attic Gallery, New Delhi, 2009.
“Claude Martin and the Gomti Riverfront in Lucknow”. Public Lecture in the Department of Architecture, Babu Banarasi Das National Institute of Technology, Lucknow, India, 2011.
“Cultural Landscapes of Orchha, India: Reclaiming a Lost Heritage”, invited Lecture in the Departments of Landscape Architecture and Geography at Kansas State University, Manhattan, 2012, Government College of Architecture, Lucknow and Jamia Millia Islamia University, Delhi, India, 2013, Amity School of Architecture and Planning, Noida, India, 2015.
“Gaze and the Picturesque Landscape of Amber, India”, Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage, New Delhi, August 2013 and Jamia Millia Islamia University, Delhi, L.S.Raheja School of Architecture, January 2014.
“Cultural Landscapes and Heritage Conservation: Design Studies in India”, State University of New York at Old Westbury, and Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, October 2014.
“Ghats on the Ganga in Varanasi, India: Reclaiming the Cultural Landscape”, Centre for Heritage Management, Ahmedabad University, and ‘Death and Life on the Ghats on the Ganga in Varanasi”, CEPT University, Ahmedabad, Government College of Architecture, Lucknow, India, December 2015.
“Envisioning a Resilient Cultural Landscape: Ghats on the Ganga in Varanasi”, Amita University, Lucknow, and Jamia Millia Islamia University, Delhi, India, January 2017.
G. Editorships of Journals or Other Learned Publications
H. Grants Received
University of Illinois Research Board William & Flora Hewlett Summer International Research Grant, “Sacred Landscape of India Cities,” 1996. $3,500.
University of Illinois Research Board, “Landscape in India,” 1997. $2,000.
Amita Sinha, Marilou Hinrichs and Carol Emmerling-Dinovo.
University of Illinois Educational Technologies Research Board, “Digital Archive in Landscape Architecture,” 1998. $5,556.
University of Illinois College of Fine and Applied Arts Grant to develop a course on Architecture and Landscape of South Asia, 1999. $5,444.
University of Illinois Research Board, “Taj National Park Project Report,” 2000. $1,076.
Amita Sinha and Gary Kesler. Department of Landscape Architecture, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign Wadsworth Endowment Grant, “World Heritage Sites in India,” 2001. $11,200.
University of Illinois Research Board, “Architectural History in India: Colonial and Post-colonial Discourses,” 2001. $2,520.
University of Illinois Research Board, “The Garden in India: Representations in Art, Architecture, and Literature,” 2002. $9,000 for Humanities Release Time.
Amita Sinha, Gary Kesler, D. Fairchild Ruggles, and James Wescoat, Department of Landscape Architecture, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, Wadsworth Endowment Grant, “Champaner-Pavagadh Cultural Sanctuary, Gujarat, India,” 2003. $15,000.
Amita Sinha and D. Fairchild Ruggles. Foundation Max Van Berchem, Geneva, Switzerland, “Champaner: Architecture, Urbanism, and Landscape,” 2003. $11,170.
Amita Sinha and James Wescoat, Jr. University of Illinois Research Board, “Forts of Champaner-Pavagadh, Gujarat, India,” 2004. $10,663.
Amita Sinha, James Wescoat, Jr. and D. Fairchild Ruggles. University of Illinois International Council, “The Shalamar Garden Conference: International Collaboration on Cultural Heritage Conservation in South Asia,” 2004. $8,000.
Amita Sinha and James Wescoat Jr. Department of Landscape Architecture, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, Wadsworth Endowment Grant, “The Shalamar Garden Conference: International Collaboration on Cultural Heritage Conservation in South Asia,” 2005. $10,000.
University of Illinois Research Board, “Heritage Landscapes in India,” Spring 2009, $9,000 for Humanities Release Time.
University of Illinois Research Board, “Cultural Landscapes of Govardhan in Braj, India: Imagined, Enacted and Reclaimed”, 2010, $5,745.
Wadsworth Research Grant, Department of Landscape Architecture, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, “Cultural Landscapes of Govardhan in Braj, India: Imagined, Enacted and Reclaimed”, 2010, $3,000.
College of Fine and Applied Arts, Creative Research Award, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, “Cultural Landscapes of Champaner-Pavagadh, Gujarat, India”, 2011, $3,527.
Arnold Beckman Research Award, University of Illinois Research Board, “Cultural Landscapes of Champaner-Pavagadh, Gujarat, India”, 2011, $4,630.
University of Illinois Research Board, “History, Heritage, and Cultural Landscapes of Orchha, India”, 2012, $4,120.
Wadsworth Research Grant, Department of Landscape Architecture, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, “Heritage, Cultural Landscapes, and Conservation in South Asia”, 2012, $5,000.
College of Fine and Applied Arts, Creative Research Award, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, “Varanasi Ghats on the Ganga: The Cultural Landscape Enacted and Reclaimed”, 2013, $3,100.
University of Illinois Research Board, “Varanasi Ghats on the Ganga in India: The Cultural Landscape Enacted and Reclaimed”, 2013, $5,542.
Wadsworth Research Grant, Department of Landscape Architecture, “Varanasi Ghats on the Ganga in India: The Cultural Landscape Enacted and Reclaimed”, 2013, $6,500.
Wadsworth Research Grant, Department of Landscape Architecture, “Varanasi Ghats on the Ganga in India: Thresholds and Landings”, 2015, $3,000.
University of Illinois Research Board, “The Mandala City”, 2016, $4,175.
College of Fine and Applied Arts, Project Completion Grant, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, “Cultural Landscapes of South Asia: Studies in Heritage Conservation and Management”, 2016, $1,500.
II. PUBLICATIONS AND CREATIVE WORKS
#derived from thesis
*peer reviewed
+invited
A. Doctoral Thesis Title
Environmental and Social Change in Home and Neighborhood in Northern India, Dissertation submitted towards partial fulfillment for Doctor of Philosophy in Architecture, University of California, Berkeley, 1989.
B. Books Authored or Co-Authored
1. *Sinha, Amita. Landscapes in India: Forms and Meanings. Boulder, CO: University Press of Colorado, 2006 (reprinted by Asian Educational Services, 2011).
C. Books Edited or Co-Edited
1. Sinha, Amita (ed). Landscape Perception – Readings in Environmental Psychology. London: Academic Press, 1995.
2. Silva, Kapila and Amita Sinha (eds.) Cultural Landscapes of South Asia: Studies in Heritage Conservation and Management. New York, Routledge, 2017.
D. Chapters in Books
1. #+Sinha, Amita. “Women’s Local Space—Home and Neighborhood,” Sally Sutherland (ed). Bridging Worlds—Studies on Women in South Asia. Center for South Asia Studies, Occasional Papers, No. 17, University of California, Berkeley, 1991.
2. #+Sinha, Amita. “Participant Observation: A Study of State-aided Self-help Housing in Lucknow, India,” in Graham Tipple & Kenneth Willis (eds.) Housing the Poor in the Developing World—Methods of Analysis, Case Studies, and Policy. New York: Routledge, 1991, pp. 16-34.
3. +Sinha, Amita. “Introduction: Varieties of Nature Viewing,” in Sinha (ed.) Landscape Perception: Readings in Environmental Psychology. London: Academic Press, 1995.
4. +Raghunathan, Aparna and Amita Sinha, “Cultural Heritage Planning of Sacred Sites—A Case Study of Rockfort Temple at Tiruchirapalli, Tamil Nadu” in Nalini Rao (ed.) Sangama—A Confluence of Art and Culture During the Vijayanagar Period. Delhi: Original, 2006, pp. 133-144.
5. +Sinha, Amita, “Complex Landscapes and the Ramayana Legend”, J.McKim Malville and Baidyanath Saraswati (eds.) Pilgrimage: Complexity and Cosmos. Delhi: D.K. Printworld, 2009, pp. 138-149.
6. +D. Fairchild Ruggles and Amita Sinha, “Preserving the Cultural Landscape Heritage of Champaner-Pavagadh, Gujarat, India”, D. Fairchild Ruggles and Helaine Silverman (eds.) Intangible Heritage Embodied. Springer, 2009, pp. 79-100.
7. +Sinha, Amita, “Conserving Delhi’s Landscape Heritage” Amita Sinha (ed.) Delhi’s Natural Heritage. New Delhi: USIEF and INTACH, 2009, pp. 9-24.
8. +Sinha, Amita, “Cultural Landscape of the Mother Goddess at Pavagadh”, Rana P.B. Singh (ed.) Sacred Geography of Goddesses in South Asia: Essays in Memory of David Kinsley. Planet Earth & Cultural Understanding Series, Pub. 5. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2010, pp125-142.
9. +Sinha, Amita, “Sacred Landscapes of Govardhan in Braj, India: Imagined, Enacted, and Reclaimed”, Singh, Rana P.B. (ed.) Holy Places and Pilgrimages: Essays on India. Planet Earth & Cultural Understanding Series, Pub. 8. New Delhi: Shubhi Publications, 2011, pp. 149-164.
10. +Sinha, Amita, “Architectural History in India—A Post Colonial Perspective”, Ian Mabbett (ed.) Pracyaprajnapradipa, Professor Dr Samaresh Bandyopadhyay Felicitation Volume on Early Indian History and Culture, North American Institute for Oriental and Classical Studies, Tennessee, USA. Kolkata: Arunima Printing Works, 2012, pp. 476-486.
11. +Sinha, Amita, “Cultural heritage and Sacred Landscapes of South Asia: Reclamation of Govardhan in Braj, India”, Kapila D. Silva and Neel Kamal Chapagain (eds.) Asian Heritage Management: Contexts, Concerns, and Prospects. New York: Routledge, 2013, pp. 176-188.
12. +Sinha, Amita “Memorial Parks to Begum Hazrat Mahal and Mayawati in Lucknow, India”, D. Fairchild Ruggles (ed.) Woman’s Eye, Woman’s Hand: Making Art and Architecture in Modern India. New Delhi: Zubaan Books, 2014, pp. 92-113.
13. +Sinha, Amita and Rajat Kant, “City of Nawabs to City of Elephants: Urban Transformation in Lucknow, India”, M. Elen Deming (ed.) Values in Landscape Architecture and Environmental Design: Finding Center in Theory and Practice. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2015, pp. 174-197.
14. Sinha, Amita, “Introduction”, Silva, Kapila and Amita Sinha (eds.) Cultural Landscapes of South Asia: Studies in Heritage Conservation and Management. New York, Routledge, 2017, pp. 1-10.
15. Sinha, Amita, “The public realm of heritage sites in India: sustainable approaches towards planning and management”, Kapila Silva and Amita Sinha (eds.) Cultural Landscapes of South Asia: Studies in Heritage Conservation and Management. New York, Routledge, 2017, pp. 227-240.
16. Sinha, Amita, “Grounded speculations on cultural landscape conservation”, Kapila Silva and Amita Sinha (eds.) Cultural Landscapes of South Asia: Studies in Heritage Conservation and Management. New York, Routledge, 2017, pp. 241-257.
E. Monographs
Sinha, Amita (ed.) Delhi’s Natural Heritage. New Delhi: INTACH and USIEF, 2009.
F. Articles in Journals
1. #+Sinha, Amita. “Indian Children’s Use of the Outdoors,” Play Rights, USA, Vol. XI, No. 3 (September 1989): 7-11.
2. #*Sinha, Amita. “Women’s Local Space: Home and Neighborhood in Northern India,” Women and Environments, USA (Winter 1989): 7-11.
3. #*Sinha, Amita. “A Critique of State Self-help Housing in Northern India,” International Journal for Housing Science and its Applications, USA, Vol. 13, No. 1 (1989): 23-35.
4. #*Sinha, Amita. “A Critique of State-aided Self-help Housing in Northern India,” Open House International, U.K., Vol. 15, No. 1 (1990): 37-44.
5. *Sinha, Amita. “Social and Spatial Order in Villages in India,” Landscape Research, U.K., Vol. 15, No. 3 (Winter 1990): 12-20.
6. *Sinha, Amita. “The Conservation of Sacred Sites: Sarnath, A Case Study,” Landscape Research, U.K., Vol. 16, No. 3 (Winter 1991): 23-30.
7. Lapierre, Ying Qu and Amita Sinha. “Chinese Students’ Perceptions of Home and Community in the United States – A Case Study of University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign,” (translated), Landscape Architecture, Taiwan (1992).
8. Sinha, Amita. “Nature in Hindu Mythology Art, and Architecture,” Rana P.B. Singh (ed.), Environmental Ethics: Discourses and Cultural Traditions, Varanasi, India: The National Geographical Society of India, Pub. 40, Vol. 39 (1993): 131-140.
9. *Lapierre, Ying Qu and Amita Sinha. “Chinese Students’ Perceptions of Home and Community in the United States – A Case Study of University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign,” Habitat International, Australia, Vol. 17, No. 2 (1993): 123-134
10. *Lapierre, Ying Qu and Amita Sinha. “Chinese Students’ Perceptions of Home and Community in the United States – A Case Study of University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign,” International Journal for Housing Science and its Applications, USA, Vol. 17, No. 2 (1993).
11. *Sinha, Amita. “Courtyard Dwellings in India,” Geographical Review of India, Vol. 55, No. 2 (June 1993): 36-47.
12. *Sinha, Amita. “The Centre as Void – Courtyard Dwellings in India,” Open House International, U.K., Vol. 19, No. 4 (1994): 28-35.
13. Sinha, Amita. “Pilgrimage – Journey to the Sacred Landscape of Braj,” Rana P.B. Singh (ed.), The Spirit and Power and Place, Varanasi, India: The National Geographical Society of India, Pub. 41, Vol. 40 (1994): 239-248.
14. Sinha, Amita. “Design Proposal for a Sacred Site – Sarnath, India,” Landscape Design, U.K. (November 1994): 34-36.